


Lusamine Vs Chris Hansen

by HeadOfSpectre



Series: Checkmate [4]
Category: Pokemon, To Catch A Predator
Genre: Death, F/F, Kidnapping, Literally the first part is one giant fight scene, Multi, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 06:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 32,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11224965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeadOfSpectre/pseuds/HeadOfSpectre
Summary: After fleeing her dark past, and a series of probing asks, Lusamine, former President of the Aether Foundation finds herself cornered by a Hunter out To Catch a Predator.The first chapter of this fic consists entirely of one giant fist fight/Pokemon battle between Lusamine and Chris Hansen. The second 'chapter' is really more of an actual story.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zed_Zalias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zed_Zalias/gifts).



> This silly story was written for a friend. Some time ago, I got to following an Tumblr RP blog called beautiful-lusamine. I hopped on a bandwagon of sending asks to Lusamine, posing as Chris Hansen. Y'know, the Dateline NBC guy?  
> Anyways, this fic came from an absolutely ridiculous idea where Lusamine and Chris Hansen finally met up, and decided to duke it out, and everything became more and more ridiculous and over the top. 
> 
> I hope others will get as much a giggle out of this silly fic as I did writing it.

**Stockholm, Sweden  
1:19 PM**         

 

The wind seemed a little stronger today, as well as a little colder. But the nip in the air was rather nice given how hot it’d been lately. The cars passing by seemed oddly distant to Lusamine as she walked back to the hotel. She’d been living away from the Alola region for almost a year now, ever since having to escape Chris Hansen. Every week, she moved to a different hotel, varying her location, keeping herself funded through numerous false bank accounts. She still had her resources as acting President of the Aether Foundation, even if she was living in hiding, under an assumed identity. What was it this time? Valentine Lestrad? What a ridiculous name, but she kept her cover up well.

            The warmth of the hotel lobby was comforting, and Lusamine quietly greeted the man behind the desk before making her way to the elevator. She’d noticed he hadn’t greeted her back. A little odd… and a little rude, but perhaps he’d just been busy!

           

            On the 7th floor, she reached her hotel room, and unlocked the door.  
She sighed as she stepped inside, her mind drifting off to a world where the air was heavier, and hearing the affectionate trill of the creature she’d longed for… the creature she’d given up everything for. In due time, she would see it again.  
    “Hello again, Madame President.”

            The cool, calm and collected voice sent a shiver down her spine. She froze, before looking over to the far side of her hotel room.

            Stationed at a table by the window, sat a silhouetted figure. She knew him by his voice alone. There was no need for him to identify himself.

    “Why don’t you take a seat over there.” Chris Hansen said, taking a puff of his cigarette. “And then, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, in Stockholm.”

    “I didn’t think you would have the resources to find me.” Lusamine replied, “I’d honestly thought I’d heard the last of you.”

    “I’m a man full of surprises.” Hansen said, “But I did make you a promise. I would find you, and bring you to justice.”  
   “I vaguely recall the sentiment…” Lusamine mused, “Tell me, Mr. Hansen. Your network fired you approximately three years ago, didn’t they? You’re no longer the feared icon you once were, and the exploitation of children for such… purposes, isn’t something I find beautiful. On the contrary, as a Mother, I find it quite ugly. My point being. Why are you here? I’m clearly not a predator, and you’re no longer a hunter. This game is ridiculous, don’t you agree?”

   “You solicited a Nihilego.” Hansen said, “That sounds predatory to me.”

   “An Ultra-Beast is not a young child, Mr. Hansen. Nihilego is a creature in need of nurturing. My business is, was and will continue to be the conservation of all Pokemon.”

   “You’re nothing but a junkie who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.” Hansen said, and Lusamine grimaced.

    “Any side effects from exposure to the Ultra Beasts is none of your concern.” She said, before adding.  
   “But I suspect my concern should be why you’re here. You’re clearly no longer with Dateline NBC, and your show is off the air. There’s no reason for us to be speaking, so tell me, Mr. Hansen. Who are you working for?”

            Chris Hansen smiled, and took another puff of his cigarette.  
   “You’ll find out soon enough. You can come with me quietly, or you can do this the hard way.”

            Lusamine slowly shook her head, her majestic hair shaking behind her.  
   “I’m afraid that’s out of the question, Mr. Hansen.” She said, taking a step over to the bedside table. “No one will take my freedom from me. Especially not you.”

   “Then surely you should know that if you won’t come willingly… I’ll need to use force. While normally, I wouldn’t want to bruise that beautiful skin of yours, I’m sure you can just slather some more scar cream on and you’ll look fine.”

            Lusamine quietly chuckled at that, trying to hide how those words infuriated her. She reached for a lamp on the bedside table, to turn it on.  
    “Well… I can recommend a brand, if you’d like. If this is about to play out the way I think it will, you’re going to need it.”

            The light came on, and in a quick movement, Lusamine hurled the lamp at Chris Hansen. It shattered against the window as he dove out of his chair, rolling on the carpet and trying to catch her with an uppercut. He missed just barely, and Lusamine knocked his legs out from under him, pushing him aside, and avoiding his first counter punch. She wasn’t so lucky as to avoid the second, which caught her in the stomach.

            She attempted a hurried cross, that Hansen effortlessly blocked, before he kicked her into the bedside table. She recoiled back, sitting on the wood, before raising a leg in a graceful kick straight to his chin.

            The sudden blow stunned him, and she took the chance to kick him back. Hansen was ready for her this time though, grabbing her leg under his arm. She caught him in the face with one final kick, breaking his focus, and allowing her to kick him back against the opposite wall. The cigarette dropped from his mouth, onto the carpet of the hotel room.

            Hansen had more physical bulk than her. In a one on one brawl, she knew she was at a disadvantage. But of course… she wasn’t alone.

            Slipping a pokeball from her pocket, the first of five, she released her pokemon.  
   “Clefable! Handle him!”

            The large, pink fairy type pokemon emerged from its pokeball with a cheerful cry.

    “Moonblast!”

            Hansen barely had time to react before he was struck with a blast of pure lunar power which launched him back against the wall, where he collapsed. Laying on the ground, Hansen looked up to see Lusamine making for the door. He slipped a pokeball from his suit jacket, and tossed it towards her.

    “Shadow sneak…” He said, voice strained from the pain.

            A dark shape appeared in the doorway, blocking Lusamines escape, and she whirled around, seeing what looked like a Pikachu on the bed but… no… not a Pikachu. A Mimikyu.

            The shrouded pokemon let out a choked noise, before Hansen ordered another attack.  
   “Shadow claw!”

            Its eyes flashed and a single sharp claw slashed at her Clefable. The pokemon let out a cry of pain, and Lusamine quickly retaliated.  
   “Metronome! Take it down!”

            Clefable’s finger twitched harmlessly, before it drew in raw power. Hansen climbed to his feet, before realizing what was coming, and ducking behind the bed. Its power gathered, the Clefable launched a devastating blast through the hotel room. Its hyper beam drowned the Mimikyu in a blinding white light, as the sheer force cracked the drywall and shattered the hotel window.

            The curtains blew in the wind, partially alight from the awesome power Clefable had unleashed. Lusamine scanned what was left of the hotel room, only to find that damned Mimikyu still standing, and unharmed.

   “Try Pain split!” Hansen cried, upending the bed to shield himself from any further attacks. Mimikyu slunk to the ground, before its eyes flashed again.

            Clefable let out a yelp of pain, although seemed mostly unharmed.  
    “Moonblast, again!” Lusamine ordered, “Knock them out of the room!”

            The Clefable all too eagerly complied, launching its attack at the Mimikyu, but this time, it missed. The smaller pokemon ducked past the blast, which struck and shattered the bed, exposing Chris Hansen.  
   “Shadow claw!” He managed to get out, before pushing half of the singed and splintered bed aside. Again, Clefable was raked with vicious claws, and now it was starting to look more worn down.

            Lusamine took a step back towards the door. That Mimikyu stood to cause her a lot of trouble. She debated taking another stab at metronome, but that was too much of a gamble. No, she only had one choice.  
   “Clefable, come back… Mismagius! Come out and play!”

            Clefable was replaced with the cackling ghost type, and this time, it easily outsped Hansen’s Mimikyu.  
   “Shadow ball!” Lusamine ordered, and her Mismagius didn’t disappoint. Before the Mimikyu could move, it was stuck by a dark blast, which sent it flying away. The Aether President grinned knowingly, before pointing at Hansen.  
   “Excellent. Now, deal with him! Sacred Fire!”

            Chris Hansen’s eyes widened as the Mismagius flew towards him, orbs of spectral flame dancing around it, then chasing him. He had nowhere else to run but to the window, and as the flaming orbs detonated, he made his choice, and leapt through the broken window, out of sight.

            Victory seemingly assured, Lusamine smiled, and allowed herself a sigh of relief.

    “Pathetic…” She said quietly, raising Mismagius’ pokeball. “Let’s go. I’ll contact Wicke. I’d imagine we can have a helicopter on the roof in a matter of—”

            A dark claw caught her Mismagius from behind, and she registered the look of pain on its face, in the instant before it returned to its pokeball. She knew that the blow has been too much. Just one hit, and her beloved Mismagius was in no state to battle any further.

            Her eyes settled on the Mimikyu in the corner of the room, the neck of its costume bent at an unnatural angle, and strangled noises coming from it. It seemed that its disguise had taken the brunt of the assault, and the pokemon itself was mostly unharmed.

            Readying Clefable’s pokeball again, Lusamine sent it out to finish what it had started.

   “Mimikyu, play rough, on Lusamine!” Hansen’s voice sounded. In the instant before the Mimikyu lunged, she saw him hovering through the window, riding comfortably on the back of a Skarmory.

            Her Clefable took the brunt of the assault, loyally protecting her, and Lusamine didn’t let that loyalty go to waste.  
   “Metronome!” She cried, and again, Clefable selected an attack. Letting out a cry, the fairy pokemon let loose a remarkable burst of flames. Mimikyu recoiled, as did Hansen and his Skarmory. Lusamine was even forced to retreat from such intensity! Such was the power of her Clefable’s Blast Burn.

            Coughing, Lusamine stumbled into the hallway.  
   “Clefable!” She called, “Come on! To the roof!” Her exhausted pokemon diligently followed, floating along behind her while recovering from the exertion of its attack.

            She could smell the smoke as the hotel started to burn. A fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers went off, drenching the woman and her pokemon.

            Determined as ever, Lusamine and Clefable made their way to the stairwell, and began the climb up it. She checked her phone, and made a call for evac.

 

            The blast had temporarily blinded Chris Hansen. Skarmory had kept him safe, and he could see Mimikyu scuttling up the side of the building, like an insect. No doubt Lusamine was already making her escape… but where… up or down?

            The answer came soon enough, as Hansen saw a white helicopter with the Aether Foundation logo on the side. Smiling, he tugged Skarmory’s shoulders, coaxing it to fly upwards.

            They could trap her on the roof.

 

            Lusamine burst through the door to the rooftop, noticing the helicopter coming closer and closer. Her Clefable stood by her side, before tugging her shirt to warn her of another threat.

            Hansen’s Skarmory soared up into the sky, before diving down. The former TV show host dropped safely down from the back of his pokemon, onto the roof, and the steel type pokemon circled the area like a Mandibuzz.

    “End of the line, Lusamine.” Chris Hansen said, “You can’t run! This time I’m ready for you!”

   “So am I!” Lusamine warned, and from the corner of her eye, saw Hansen’s Mimikyu reaching the rooftop.

    “Clefable, Moonblast!” She ordered.  
   “Shadow sneak!” Hansen retorted.

            The Mimikyu’s shadow struck Clefable first, but it wouldn’t be so lucky as to dodge Moonblast a second time. The impact knocked it back a few steps, before at Hansen’s order, it retaliated with a vicious shadow claw.  
   “Moonlight.” Lusamine said, letting her Clefable heal from the damage.

            The helicopter was getting ever closer, and Hansen’s Skarmory darted around it, trying to prevent it from landing. The man himself paced impatiently, watching as his and Lusamine’s pokemon traded blows. The helicopter was getting closer and closer.

   “Clefable! Metronome!” She ordered, and this time, her pokemon summoned a harmless, yet blinding flash of light. Lusamine shielded her eyes, but the flash did the trick.

            Hansen let out a cry and stumbled backwards and his Mimikyu missed its next attempt at shadow claw. Even better, the Skarmory clumsily bumped against the helicopter and was sent off course.

            Her ride hovered adjacent to the roof, and Lusamine hurriedly leapt on board, along with her Clefable.

   “Let’s go!” She commanded her pilot. “Put some distance between us!”

    “Yes ma’am!” A voice crackled through the radio, and the helicopter quickly pulled away.

 

            Chris Hansen could see it through his distorted vision. He could see Lusamine escaping, her helicopter pulling away and yet… something dangled from the bottom of the aircraft. It took him a moment to realize what it was, but indeed it was his Mimikyu.

    “Skarmory! To me.” He called, and the pokemon came obediently, allowing him to climb back onto it, and taking off after Lusamine once more.  


    “More speed! He’s gaining!” Lusamine called, “Clefable, hit it with a moonblast!”

            Her Clefable prepared the attack, yet before it could launch, a shadowy claw struck it. Its attack veered off course, damaging the burning hotel further. The Mimikyu’s awful choking could be heard as it crawled into the cabin of the helicopter once more, determined to finish what it had started.  
    “Goddamnit… Metronome!” Lusamine growled, almost at her wits end with this damned pokemon.

            Her Clefable obliged, wagging its finger, before releasing an unexpected flood of filthy water.

            The helicopter sagged in its flight, as gallons of muddy water poured from its cabin. Lusamine grabbed at a handle to keep herself from being washed away, yet the Mimikyu had no such luxury. It was forced out of the cabin, and plummeted out of the helicopter.

 

            Hansen’s Skarmory did a dive to save it, and he quickly recalled it back into its pokeball. Mimikyu was defeated.

    “Damnit…” He said under his breath, and watched as Lusamine smugly watched from the safety of her Helicopter. She withdrew her Clefable, and moved to close the doors of the Helicopter.  
   “Get us close.” He called to his Skarmory, and it pushed forward, gaining as quickly as it could. Hansen took a certain satisfaction in watching the smug elation drain from Lusamine’s expression, as she realized that Chris Hansen was on a collision course with her helicopter.

 

            The impact came suddenly. Skarmory tore through the cabin of the aircraft, tearing through both doors like a bullet. Lusamine was almost knocked out of the helicopter herself, and the haymaker Chris Hansen caught her with moments later didn’t help either. She found herself gripping the spot where one of the doors had been moments before, forcing herself back inside and steadying herself on her feet.

            She caught him with a sucker punch to the gut, before ramming against him, trying to push her towards the cabin door. Stubbornly, Hansen refused to fall out of the open helicopter. His retaliation was quick and brutal. A violent cross, and as she recoiled, he seized a handful of her beautiful blonde hair, pulling her towards him. His forearm pressed against her throat, and her breath was cut off.

            Struggling did her little good. Lusamine was barely holding on as it was. The wind whipped at her hair, and she realized there was only one move she could make. She kicked off against the wall of the cabin, propelling herself and Chris Hansen out the exposed side of the helicopter and into a momentary freefall.

            As she’d anticipated, he’d chosen self-preservation over throttling her. He’d let her go, and grabbed at the landing skid, catching it, and she’d done the same. For a moment, the two disoriented fighters hung there, helplessly, before Lusamine started to climb back into the cabin. Her high heeled shoe struck Hansen in the face, determined to kick him off of her means of escape.

            At the second kick, he let himself hang lower, watching as Lusamine climbed back into the safety of her helicopter. She grabbed a handle for safety, before lowering her foot down to Chris Hansen’s slipping fingers.

    “Goodbye, Mr. Hansen!” She crooned, pressing the tip of her shoe against his finger, and beginning to apply more and more pressure…

 

            There was the sharp cry of a Skarmory, and the entire Helicopter rocked. Lusamine toppled backwards, hitting her head on the floor of the cabin. She could see the Skarmory in front of the cockpit. Its beak and claws piercing through the glass as it attacked her pilot.

            Hansen could wait! That damn pokemon was trying to take out her pilot! Scrambling for something, anything! Lusamine found a flare gun. Taking aim, she fired a single shot at the Skarmory. It struck the pokemon in the head, frightening it into retreating, before bouncing and landing beside the pilot.

            The Helicopter filled with acrid red smoke, and she stumbled away from it, coughing to clear her lungs before reloading the flare gun and, glancing at the spot where Chris Hansen had been, and feeling a moment of relief when she saw he was missing.  
   “Visuals are gone, ma’am! I can’t see a thing!” Her pilot called.  
   “Hold it steady!” Lusamine replied, “We’re clear of the skyline. Just let the smoke clear!”

            No sooner had she spoken, then she was caught by another punch to the jaw. She whirled around, spotting Chris Hansen. He must have climbed under the helicopter to come in through the other side!

            She hastily fired the flare gun at him, but this time, the round missed. Hansen sidestepped her, slipping another pokeball from his suit jacket.

    “Your flights about to be delayed!” He said, his expression completely serious, despite the cringeworthiness of his line. Before she could reply, he’d sent out his next pokemon.

            At first, she could barely see it, only make out a cry that sounded… wrong, somehow. But then, through the red smoke, she could make it out. Rounded, disconnected shapes and erratic movements.

            Porygon-Z.

            Grimacing, Lusamine dipped her hand to her belt.  
   “Persistent until the end, Mr. Hansen? I’ll fix you yet… Bewear!”

            The pokeball released the looming pokemon. Its sheer mass caused the helicopter to sag slightly.

   “Hammer arm!” The President ordered, and her Bewear violently swung its massive arms. Every blow dented the metal of the helicopter, yet Hansen’s Porygon evaded it with ease.

    “Porygon-Z, ignore her pokemon! Target the helicopters engines!”

            Bewear made one final swing, before the Porgon-Z disintegrated. Lusamine’s eyes widened, while Chris Hansen merely smiled.  
   “I’ve got the only flying type Pokemon, Lusamine.” He said, and the lights of the cabin flickered. She could hear the helicopters engine sputter and die.  
   “Ma’am! Controls aren’t responding! Whatever that thing did, I can’t keep us up! We’re going down!”

    “Damn you…”

            The Porygon-Z materialized again, and she wasted no time in dealing with it.  
   “Bewear! Superpower!”

            Hansen’s knowing grin faded, as his pokemon was brutally crushed by her Bewear. He quickly withdrew it, only to hear her give her next order.  
   “Now, kindly throw Mr. Hansen out of my goddamn helicopter! There’s only parachutes for two, and besides. You’ve got the only flying type pokemon!”

            The Bewear slammed its head into Hansen’s body, sending him toppling out of the exposed door. Lusamine thought she saw his Skarmory soaring after him, and prayed it would be too late.

   “We’re coming down hot!” Her pilot warned.  
    “Take a parachute and bail out!” She ordered, before she felt herself being pulled away. Her Bewear had seized her in a tight embrace.

            The ground was coming up fast, she could see her pilot scrambling to get a parachute, and it was the last she saw of the helicopter before Bewear leapt from it.

 

            Bewear landed on the ground with a heavy thud. The pavement below it cracked, and a car veered to avoid hitting them. Seemed they’d landed in the middle of a parking lot.

            Lusamine was weakly set down, and gripped a nearby vehicle to regain her balance. After being stuck in a brawl on a crashing helicopter, she felt sick and dizzy. She looked up, spotting a mall up ahead. People were staring at her as if she was insane… but that was fine.

            She looked up, watching her disabled helicopter plummet, and sighing with relief when she spotted a little white parachute escaping. At least she wouldn’t need to pay compensation to the pilots family…

            A Skarmory circled around the sky, no doubt with Chris Hansen on its back, looking for her. She gestured for Bewear to follow as she dragged her tired body towards the mall. Too slowly, unfortunately.

            The Skarmory dove down towards her, and Hansen leapt off of its back. Lusamine noticed a stumble in his step.  
    “No escape, Madame President.” He said, his voice breathless. “We can do this all day…”

    “Can we?” Lusamine asked, “You’re an older man, Mr. Hansen. I very much doubt that’s true. What of your wife? Your children? What of your mistress?”

            She let out a tired giggle.  
   “Did your Wife take that knowledge well? I imagine not… ah, but men are all the same. Short on brains, and despite their claims, usually short in other places too.”

            Chris Hansen gave her a look of disgust, before gesturing to her Bewear.  
   “Skarmory! Aerial Ace!”

            The pokemon came out of seemingly nowhere, slashing at her beloved Bewear with its sharp wings. Her pokemon let out a roar of pain, before swinging with its lumbering arms, too slow to actually harm the enemy.  
   “Again, Skarmory!”  
   “Hammer arm!” Lusamine replied. This time, Her Bewear got in a good hit, before his Skarmory did. Its flight wobbled, and it retreated to a safe distance.

            Bewear’s leg gave out, and the mighty pokemon took a knee. Lusamine stared at it in shock.  
   “No… No, no… you can fight! You can still do this! He’s weak! You can crush him!”

            Bewear let out a low grumble, before the Skarmory came back one final time. Her Bewear managed to strike it, but there was barely any power in that hit. As Skarmory’s sharp steel wings clipped it one last time, Bewear finally gave in and collapsed.

            Lusamine quickly returned it to its pokeball, her hand shaking in rage.  
   “By my count, we both have three pokemon left.” Chris Hansen said, “We can end this now, you know. Before this gets any more out of hand.”

    “And you, Mr. Hansen cannot stop me from seeing my Sweet Beasts once more. Of that you can most fucking CERTAINLY be assured!” Lusamine spat, “Milotic! Finish off his Skarmory!”

            She sent out the majestic pokemon, and it bobbed its head to avoid Skarmory’s next attempt to slice it.  
   “Try steel wing!” Chris Hansen cried, and Lusamine managed a half smile.  
   “Milotic. Ice beam.”

            As the Skarmory made its final charge, her Milotic unleashed a blast of cold at the approaching pokemon. It iced as it dove towards it, before veering off its path, and crashing gracelessly into a parked car.

            Chris Hansen withdrew his pokemon, and readied another pokeball, but Lusamine cared little for battling him now.  
   “Milotic, Aqua tail!”

            Her Milotic swung its majestic tail, striking Hansen in the midsection and knocking him effortlessly to the side. Lusamine glared at him, seemingly unconscious on the ground, before quickly withdrawing her Milotic and hurrying into the mall.

 

            It was easy to lose herself in a crowd. Soon, people weren’t gawking at her, for having just fallen from the sky and engaging an aging journalist in a pokemon battle. That was always a plus.

            Lusamine spotted a clothing store nearby, and discreetly grabbed a hoodie off the display rack, before disappearing back into the crowd. She slipped it on, zipped it, pulled up the hood and checked on her phone. The screen had cracked during the fighting, but she could still use it.

            She sent a message, along with her location, demanding further transport on the double. Who knew how long she had until Hansen awoke.

 

            Chris Hansen pried himself off the ground, swaying drunkenly as he stood up. Lusamine was long gone already. But he wasn’t out of the fight just yet.

            Down to his last two pokemon, Hansen knew he needed to make them count. His hand dipped down to his tie, feeling around for the clip that kept it neatly in place. Through the fighting, it hadn’t fallen off yet, and the mega keystone inside was still intact. He still had his ace in the hole.

            He took one of his pokeballs, and released the pokemon inside.  
   “Arcanine… find that woman…” He said, somewhat breathless. “We have to stop her…”

            His pokemon barked agreeably, before bounding off towards the mall, with Hansen at its side.

 

            Lusamine rode the escalator, keeping an eye out in case Hansen had roused. She could see the Arcanine coming from a good distance off, and got off on the third floor, keeping the high ground in order to throw him off.

            She was briefly distracted by a beautiful knife set outside a shop. It looked like a person, with the many knives comically jutting out of their body. Rather adorable, actually. She was sure to slip one of them into her sweater, for safety. She held Milotic’s pokeball in the other hand.

            Chris Hansen and the Arcanine were below her now. They were halfway through the mall, and Arcanine was tracing her movements. She paused.

            The pokemon must have smelt her… it was following her scent. Hansen looked around desperately, failing to see her. Lusamine kept walking, noticing a prominent fountain near the exact center of the mall. In a swift movement, she tossed Milotic’s pokeball over the railing, releasing it into the fountain.

            The appearance of a Milotic certainly got some attention, and she heard the cries of surprise, as well as the beautiful sound of her pokemon. She smiled, and kept walking.

 

            The Milotic’s sudden appearance had caught Hansen off guard. There was no sign of Lusamine nearby! Had she disguised herself?

   “Arcanine, Extremespeed!” He cried desperately, scanning the upper levels for some sign of the Aether President as his pokemon attacked the Milotic.

            He almost looked her over at first, before spotting something on the third floor. A figure in a dark hoodie. Unassuming at a glance, but their legs gave them away. White tights, a graceful step and white high heels.

   “You bitch…” Hansen growled, breaking into a sprint for the nearest escalator, and quickly making his way up to the third floor. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the Milotic blasting his Arcanine with a powerful hydro pump. The pokemon didn’t stand a chance, and he quickly withdrew it. The battle over, Milotic ignored Hansen and instead sought out its master.

            Lusamine glanced over her shoulder, and saw Hansen coming straight for her. She stopped, and turned, waiting for him this time as he reached the top of the escalator, and sprinted right at her.

 

            Closer… closer…closer… perfect

            Lusamine revealed her knife as Hansen made his final lunge at her. It grazed his suit jacket, cutting through the expensive tailoring. Her hood slipped off as she made a second go at him, forcing him into a retreat as she violently slashed at him.

            Chris Hansen stumbled into a bookstore, snatching up the first thing he found. A bestseller from Unova. Lusamine’s knife dug into the picture of the author on the back, before she pushed forward, and kneed Hansen in the groin.

            He released the book and let out a cry of pain, recoiling from her again, watching as Lusamine pried her knife out of the book, and whipped it at his head. Hansen clumsily knocked it aside, before fleeing further into the bookstore.

            Yes! She had him on the run! Lusamine followed him down one of the tall aisles, watching as frightened customers fled around her. Hansen darted behind one of the shelves and she followed, only stopping when she noticed the shelf beginning to tilt.

            Shit.

            The books rained down on her. A cavalcade of different authors and subjects. Sinnoh myths. Unovan Suspense stories. Stories of classic battles. Memoirs of Former Kanto Champion Blue. Mallow’s Cookbook, and she spotted her own face, on the front of her own book on the study of pokemon ecological biomes, coming down to meet her. For a split second, Lusamine truly was kissing herself, before the rest of the shelf overcame her, crushing her beneath it. The shelf behind her collapsed too, providing her no soft landing.

            Pinned and dazed, the woman felt the knife slip from her fingers as she lifted the shelf off of her, and struggled to escape the pile of books. No sooner than she was free, she felt a sharp pain on her cheek. Hansen had snatched a gossip magazine, rolled it up and struck her with it.

            It took a few more quick, yet vicious strikes before she could manage to retaliate. She pushed a small stand full of little puzzle books at him, barely phasing him, and as he came in for another whack, she grabbed his arm, and gave him another firm knee to the groin, before whirling him around and tossing him at the checkout counter.

            Hansen bumped against it, before snatching up the register and hurling it at her. It crashed against the display beside her, and Hansen charged.

            Lusamine caught him with a frantic jab to the throat, and then followed up with a blow to the ribs. She tripped him up before pushing him over to the collapsed shelves. She spotted her husbands face amongst the discarded books, adorning the back of a hardcover textbook with a poorly drawn artists rendering of a Nihilego on the front.

            As Hansen rose, she snatched it up, and slammed it against his head, stunning him, before kicking him in the stomach, and knocking him back down. She hurled the book at him as a final insult, before hurrying away.

            She glanced around, spotting her Milotic on the second floor, weaving its way up to her, she fumbled for its pokeball, before she heard rushing footsteps behind her.

            There was no time to get out of the way before Chris Hansen tackled her over the railing of the third floor. Again, they found themselves in a free fall. Lusamine’s Milotic let out a distressed cry before launching itself through the air. They hit its back, and the three crashed down to the first floor again, separating as the impact shook them. Lusamine rolled off of her Milotic, and onto the ground, groaning in exhaustion before shakily standing up. She could see Chris Hansen doing the same, and took a few unsteady steps back, looking around for some sort of weapon she could use. There was an ‘As Seen on TV’ storefront, and a pokemon pet shop near her, and she made her way towards the former, hoping for another knife, and periodically glancing at Hansen. Her Milotic was out of it, and she tentatively withdrew it.

    “You’re on your last pokemon, Mr. Hansen.” She said weakly. “Give it up… there’s only one way this ends.”

            Hansen stared at her, before stumbling towards her.  
   “Yes… Madame President… there is only one way.” He agreed, slowly forcing his tired body into a run. Lusamine braced herself for impact, and felt herself crashing to the ground. Their clashing figures rolled into a display of the As Seen On TV storefront, and she pushed Hansen away, scrambling to her feet. She spotted another luxury knife set nearby and made a dash for it, coming crashing to the ground as Hansen grabbed her ankle, tripping her.

            Lusamine kicked him square in the forehead, the sole of her high heeled shoe coming down over and over again, before getting to her feet. She bumped into a sampling display for a novelty waffle iron that had made breakfast in the shape of a Pikachu’s head, and grabbed the large tub of waffle batter the attendant had been using, hurling it at Hansen.

            The batter splattered all over part of his suit jacket, but otherwise didn’t stop him. He tried to catch her in a right cross, but Lusamine wove past it, firmly elbowing him in the ribs, before seizing him by the hair and forcing his head down towards the hot waffle iron.

            Hansen fought to keep his face away from the burning image of a Pikachu, struggling as his tired body began to give in, losing the fight against Lusamine. His arm shot out, catching her under the arm and weakening her grip for just a moment. Long enough for him to get the upper hand. He jammed her arm down onto the hot iron, searing a red Pikachu onto her palm.

            The Aether President screamed, jerking backwards. The burn wasn’t too serious, but it hurt nonetheless. With her unburned hand, she hurled the waffle iron off the table and at Hansen. It missed pathetically, and he kicked her back against another display.

            Spotting a knife, Lusamine snatched it up, this time, picking a large meat cleaver. Hansen took a wary step back, desperately searching for a weapon he could use to defend himself, and finding nothing practical.

            As she came for him, he grabbed at the first thing he saw in arms reach. A pokemon rope toy, before ducking, and rolling out of the way of Lusamine’s first swing with the cleaver.

            Lusamine glared at him, before giving chase, slashing recklessly at him with the cleaver. Hansen found himself backing up desperately, avoiding her wrath. One slash came too close to his shoulder, and he swung the rope toy he’d gotten, catching Lusamine in the face.

The knotted end of the rope hurt like hell, but did little to dissuade her. Hansen swung again, catching her a second time, but left himself open in the process. The edge of her cleaver caught him in the chest, leaving a trail of red against his white shirt. Hansen recoiled immediately, before taking another desperate swing with the rope. Lusamine easily avoided it, and caught him in a vicious roundhouse before he could try again. Hansen collapsed against the fountain, moving only when Lusamine brought the cleaver down on where his head had been moments before. The blade chipped the granite, and Hansen delivered a firm kick to the knee before she could try and swing again. Lusamine clumsily toppled over, grabbing at the fountain for support, before Hansen swung his rope toy once more. This time, it caught her square in the face, stunning her. The world went white and she felt the meat cleaver slip from her hand and skitter away, harmless now.

Her ears were ringing as Lusamine picked herself up, climbing onto all fours before Hansen kicked her in the stomach, winding her. She collapsed again, and could see him raising his finely polished dress shoe to step on her face. As it came down, she grabbed it, keeping him at bay. With one mighty push, she sent Hansen off balance, sending him toppling over, and into the fountain.

As she scrambled to her feet, she saw the rope toy had fallen from his grasp, and thinking quickly, leapt over Hansen as he readied himself to stand again, grabbing the rope toy up, and pouncing on him before he could stop her.

Holding both ends of the toy, she grabbed him from behind, and pulled it tight against his throat, trying to garrote him with it. Hansen struggled helplessly against her, squirming like an animal as she strangled him. She forced his head down against the granite edge of the fountain, trying to disorient him, only to find his hands grabbing at her shoulders. She felt Hansen resisting, trying to stand up and overpower her with sheer force.

A lifetime of preserving her beauty, remaining thin, shapely and beautiful suddenly turned against her. Her lack of weight was what did her in. Hansen pushed himself to his feet, with Lusamine helplessly hanging off of him, and fell backwards into the fountain.

The collapse, and sudden crushing weight on top of her caused her to lose her grip. Hansen didn’t let her slip up go unpunished, ripping the rope toy from her hands and hurling it aside. He leapt to his feet, noticing Lusamine struggling to do the same in the almost knee deep water. Her slowness was punished as well, with several quick and violent jabs to the face and ribs. The woman was unprepared for them, and found herself pushed around with ease. Hansen grabbed her by the hair and hurled her down to the ground, before pinning her, seizing her by the throat and forcing her head under the water.

Lusamine struggled desperately, as she realized that now, it was her oxygen that was cut off. Her arms and legs flailed helplessly against Chris Hansen as he tried to drown her, but in a test of raw strength, there was no contest. From beneath the surface of the fountain, she could see the man and his frantic expression. But she was determined that it would not be the last thing she’d see.

Thinking quickly, she reached for one of her pokeballs. Praying it wasn’t something too weak to battle, she clumsily tossed it. Hansen’s eyes widened as he saw the pokeball fly, and the distraction proved to be enough to resist him for a moment. Her head broke through the surface of the water, and slammed into his, stunning him and freeing her.

Gasping, Lusamine looked to see what pokemon she’d released, and her heart leapt for joy as she saw her Lilligant.

    “Petal dance!” She gasped, her words nearly incomprehensible, yet her pokemon understood. Hansen could only watch as the Lilligant came for him, twirling majestically and knocking him out of the fountain with its attack.

            Coughing and sputtering, Lusamine crawled out of the other side of the fountain, thankful for the air around her. She glanced over at Hansen, watching him reaching for his last pokeball. 

    “Gardevoir! Go!” He said, releasing the majestic pokemon.

            Lusamine stood slowly, glaring at that man and his pokemon. She watched as he grabbed his tie clip, and his Gardevoir started to glow. It was only when it was too late, that she realized what was happening.

 

            Chris Hansen smiled, as he saw the look on Lusamine’s face. With her hair wet, the woman looked a lot smaller. The moment she’d realized what he was doing had been sweet to watch, and now, with his Mega Gardevoir hovering at his side, he knew he had her beat.

    “Tell me, Madame President.” He said, “Can you tap into the power of mega evolution? Or do you forget to bond with your pokemon before you bury them in that freezer of yours?”

    “Mega evolution is just a cheap power boost.” Lusamine replied, “My pokemon don’t need to rely on such a thing. I’ll show you. Lilligant, Solar Beam!”

            Her pokemon spun gleefully, drawing in sunlight for its attack.  
   “Moonblast!” Hansen ordered, “Stop it before it can attack!”

            His Mega Gardevoir launched a familiar blast of energy at Lilligant, knocking it back, but not defeating it. The retaliation came quickly and painfully, a blast of solar energy striking the mega evolved pokemon at full force.

            Lusamine took a few unsteady steps away from Hansen and his pokemon, checking for her phone. She made out only a few words on the screen in the quick glance she took. Enough to tell her that her evac was ready. Fleeing wasn’t an option now. She only had one choice. The evac needed to come to her, and that’s precisely what she asked of them.

    “Petal dance! Overpower it!” Lusamine ordered, and as her Lilligant attacked, she heard the telltale crash of her evac request being carried out, followed by panicked screams.

            Hansen looked over in surprise, wondering what had caused the noise, and his concern distracted his Gardevoir long enough for Lilligant to catch it off guard. It hardly mattered either way.

            A large, armored white van tore through the center of the mall, Lusamine’s eyes lit up as she saw it coming closer and closer and finally, stop as it pulled up beside her.  
    “Forgive me for cutting out on you, Mr. Hansen! But I’m afraid this engagement is over!” She said, “Lilligant, come!”

            Her pokemon jovially bounded back towards her, and both hurriedly climbed into the van, which sped away before they’d even closed the doors.

            Hansen and his Gardevoir watched in shock, before exchanging a look.  
   “After her.” He told it, “I’ll catch up.”

            His Mega Gardevoir nodded, before levitating to give chase to the van as it tore through the inside of the mall on its way out.

 

            Lusamine collapsed into a seat in the van, panting heavily.

  “Thank you…” She told the driver, “I wish it hadn’t come to such a drastic maneuver… but there was no other way.”

            Her entire body ached from the brutal fighting. She wasn’t used to such intense conflict. Her head rested against the wall of the van as she examined some of her wounds. A few minor cuts, but nothing serious. Numerous bruises, a Pikachu face burnt into her palm (she was pretty sure she had a cream for that sort of burn, and if not, some scar cream should help). Most of all, the poor woman wanted to pass out from sheer exhaustion.

    “Madame President! We’ve got a Gardevoir on our six!” Her driver called. Lusamine’s eyes slowly opened.  
    “Can you shake it?” She asked meekly.  
    “Negative ma’am! Negative!”

            She sighed and stood up slowly.  
    “Fuck… this van, it’s for Advanced Ops, correct?”  
   “Yes Ma’am. Standard equipped.”

   “Good.” Lusamine said, removing a panel from the wall. Behind it, was a modest selection of weapons. Rubber bullets, tranquilizers and darts, tear gas and masks to filter it out. None of it was designed to kill. Aether Foundation was dedicated to research and preservation after all. But since every region seemed to have its own band of thugs, and some pokemon were just too powerful or aggressive to rescue without harming their employees, Lusamine had long ago decided that in some cases, a little bit of force may be required for the greater good. Despite her obsessions, she didn’t particularly want to send any of the idealistic youngsters on her payroll, who longed to make a difference into any danger without giving them some tools to subdue the danger.

    “How close is it?” She asked the driver.  
    “Too close and gaining!”

    “Any sign of Hansen?”

    “None ma’am!”

            She felt the van shake as it broke through another entrance of the mall, skidding out into the parking lot and bolting off towards the street. She had to eyeball the dosage of tranquilizer she filled the three darts she had on hand with. No need to harm an innocent Gardevoir, just subdue it. She considered adding a little more, due to its mega evolution, but that would take extra time, and besides too much could risk killing it. If it died, she wouldn’t lose any sleep, but why kill a pokemon unless absolutely necessary?

            Loading the dart into a rifle, she approached the back of the van.

    “Unlock the back door. Lilligant, prepare solar beam.” She ordered.

            The door unlocked, and Lusamine opened it. Traffic sped by quickly, and she saw the Mega Gardevoir dutifully gaining on her, swerving between vehicles. She took aim at it, crouching to try and accommodate for the undesirable conditions. For a moment, her eyes met with the Gardevoirs, and it extended a hand to her.

            As she pulled the trigger, its psychic power forced the door of the van shut. The door slammed on her barrel and skewed its aim, sending the dart harmlessly into the pavement.

    “Shit…” She spat, throwing the door back open. “Lilligant!”

            On command, her pokemon loosed the solar energy it’d been storing. The blast grazed the Gardevoir, catching it by surprise, and it fired a moonblast in retaliation. It struck her beloved Lilligant dead on, launching it back into the van, and Lusamine slammed the door closed to protect them both from further attacks.

    “Lilligant!”

            The pokemon was alive, yet unconscious. She returned it to its pokeball, cursing quietly as she loaded another dart.  
   “Keep us steady!” She yelled to the driver, before opening the door again. Nothing had changed. The roads were still busy, and the Gardevoir was still coming, getting closer and closer by the second.

            For a moment, woman and pokemon stared each other down, both waiting for the other to move first. Lusamine watched as it hovered above the traffic, coming for her. From the corner of her eye, she saw something else coming. It was small, weaving between the cars quickly. It took her a moment to identify it.

            Chris Hansen. Riding a motorcycle and coming quickly to join his Gardevoir. Lusamine managed a twisted grin. She aimed her rifle at Hansen and fired. The Gardevoir panicked, and looked over to its master, seeming relieved when it’d seen that she’d missed.

            Cursing under her breath, Lusamine chambered her final dart, and felt the van lurch underneath her. The ground gave way beneath it, and she saw the Mega Gardevoir’s eyes glowing ominously.

            It was levitating the van.

Lusamine hastily aimed at it, but the sudden lurching of the vehicle caused her to stumble and lose her grip. The rifle slipped from her grasp and landed down on the road below.

            Swearing, she retreated into the levitating van, covering herself from further attacks from that damned Gardevoir.

   “Madame President!” Her driver called, “W-what do I do!”

   “Let me handle it!” Lusamine barked, reaching for her last pokeball. Clefable’s.

“Don’t let me down…” She said under her breath, before releasing the pokemon inside. Her Clefable looked a little more rested since its last encounter aboard the helicopter, and it looked ready to fight.

   “Moonblast, as soon as I open the door.” She instructed, before throwing the vans rear door open. Clefable loosed a powerful blast of energy, striking the opposing Mega Gardevoir, but hardly doing any damage to it. Its psychic retaliation did little but agitate her Clefable.

    “Crush them.” She heard Hansen instruct, as his motorcycle came to a stop a short distance from the floating van. She hadn’t expected the Gardevoir to take it so literally. The metal groaned as pressure grew around it. It dented as the pokemons powers caused it to collapse in on itself.

            In a panic, Lusamine’s driver leapt from the front seat, and to safety. Lusamine herself, chose to stay put.

   “Give it up, Madame President!” Hansen called up to her, “You’re out of pokemon and you’re trapped. Don’t humiliate yourself!”

            Grimacing, she looked between Chris Hansen, and his Mega Garevoir, before looking at her Clefable.

    “Use Metronome…” She said quietly, hoping like hell it would be something that could get her out of this situation. Her Clefable complied… and then started to glow.

            Lusamine traded a glance with the pokemon, which seemed surprised at what was happening to it, before realizing what would happen next.

            It dashed out of the van, leaping out towards the Gardevoir. Lusamine and Hansen could only watch as the Clefable flew towards its target… and exploded.

 

            The explosion broke the Mega Gardevoir’s psychic hold on the van. It tumbled to the ground, rolling as it fell before coming to a stop at the edge of the sidewalk, landing completely flipped. Lusamine was thrown about like a ragdoll in the fall, and in the aftermath, frantically crawled to the back of the totaled van.

            Clefable’s pokeball twitched as the weakened pokemon returned to it, and she realized she was out. No more pokemon left. Just her.

            She could see no trace of the Mega Gardevoir, but she could see Chris Hansen, a fair distance away, holding its pokeball, before putting it back in his suit jacket. Her Clefable’s explosion had been enough to take the other pokemon out as well, leaving them both tied.

            Lusamine ducked back into the van, knowing that a lack of pokemon wouldn’t stop him. She hurriedly snatched up one of the weapons the van had carried, a shotgun with bean bag slugs. She hastily loaded it, before hearing the roar of Chris Hansen’s motorcycle. He was coming for her again.

            She burst out of the van just in time to see her pursuer riding towards her, and took aim, unloading the slugs onto Hansen as he sped closer. His motorcycle wobbled, before crashing into the side of her van, and careening off to the side, throwing him from it. He was down for the moment, but clearly not out.

            Lusamine hastily stocked up on what she could. The shotgun was cast aside in favor of a flashbang grenade, and an automatic rifle with rubber bullets. She pulled the pin of the grenade with her teeth, before chucking it out of the van, around where Hansen had crashed. As soon as she heard the bang, she left the safety of the crashed vehicle, armed with her rifle, and searching for the man who’d been so determined in trying to arrest her, all for the ‘crime’ of wishing to express her love!

            She spotted Chris Hansen by the door of the closest building, clutching his head in agony, and fired a few rounds at him. The rubber bullets must have stung, judging from the cry he let out, and Hansen drunkenly scrambled into the building to get out of her line of fire. Lusamine followed, keeping the rifle at the ready.

            The walls were decorated with small aquariums with water pokemon inside. She could see a display promising shows with water pokemon, as well as a staircase leading to a lower level where one could see all sorts of beautiful marine life.

            What she didn’t see, was any sign of Chris Hansen. Lusamine let out a quiet sigh of relief, and took a step back. She didn’t give a damn if Hansen wanted to hide. She merely wanted to get out of there. She turned to leave, ready to discard the rifle outright. Frankly, she wasn’t keen on such weapons… even if they were filled with non-lethal rounds.  

            That proved to be a mistake however. With a determined roar, Hansen rounded the corner behind her, his tie clutched in his hands. He pulled it tight around her neck, and dragged her towards him, pulling her back into the aquarium.

            Lusamine tried to scream as her breath was cut off. Her finger slipped, wasting much of her rifles clip, before Hansen slammed her against a wall, forcing her to drop it outright.

   “Give it up, Madame President!” He hissed in her ear.

            Lusamine brought her heel down on his toe, before ramming the back of her head into his nose, hearing it crack. Hansen’s grip on his tie loosened, and Lusamine pushed him off of her. She whirled around, catching him with a backhand, before seizing him by the shoulders, and ramming her knee into his stomach, over and over again, before she pushed him away.

            Hansen stumbled backwards, sickened and winded. His back was to the staircase leading down into the aquarium, and Lusamine showed him no mercy. She charged into him shoulder first, forcing him over the edge and sending him tumbling down the stairs.

            She panted heavily, staring down at him and praying he wouldn’t get up, only to be slowly disappointed when he did. Hansen stared back up at her, narrowing his eyes as Lusamine came down after him.  
   “Walk away from this, Mr. Hansen.” She warned. “We’re both out of pokemon. Any further conflict here would just be needlessly bloody.”

   “The only way this ends, is with you, coming with me.” Hansen replied, putting up his fists in a boxing stance. “Quitters don’t catch predators.”

    “Such an attitude will inevitably kill you.” Lusamine said dismissively, before reaching the bottom of the stairs. Hansen made the first swing, and she held up her arms to block it, before returning one of her own, catching him in the gut. Her followup blows came quickly, although were sloppy and weak. She aimed for his face and his neck, pushing him back every chance she got. Her body was already exhausted. Her muscles cried out for relief and relaxation but Hansen was still standing, and because of that, she could not give up.

            He avoided, or used his arms to block whatever blows she had in store for him, letting her wear herself down. He could already feel her every strike growing weaker and weaker. As she dished out a final right hook, Hansen dodged, and seized her by the wrist, sucker punching her in the stomach, then bringing her head down into his knee.

            Lusamine cried out in pain, before Hansen caught her in a headlock, and backed into the glass wall of an aquarium, forcefully slamming her head against the glass. The impact let her break free, and stumble backwards, kicking out at Hansen, only for him to catch her leg, and try to bring his elbow down on her knee. Before he could break her leg however, she outsped him, collapsing backwards and placing her hands on the ground for stability and bringing her free leg up in a modestly executed bicycle kick. Hansen released her, watching as the Aether President flopped weakly onto the ground, before picking herself up again.

            She backed away, bumping into the wall behind her. A glance confirmed that it was some sort of historical display… a display on whaling, to be precise. Her eyes settled on an old harpoon amongst the display, and she snatched it up. Chris Hansen spat out some blood, before reassuming the boxing stance. His fingers beckoning her to attack him.

            Lusamine made the first move, thrusting her whaling harpoon at Hansen viciously. He avoided the initial thrust, but not her backswing, which caught him in the side of the head. Lusamine spun her harpoon, before slashing at Hansen with it, leaving another cut in his shirt. He stumbled to avoid her, hitting the glass of the aquarium, before avoiding another jab that nearly impaled him. His hands closed around the shaft of the harpoon, and when Lusamine pulled it back, he came to. He swung a fist at her, catching her the first time, and missing the second. Her grip on the harpoon remained steadfast, not easily broken. Growling in exertion, the woman spun the weapon to try and bring the blade up, hoping to catch Hansen’s head, only to wind up missing. She stomped his foot, before slamming her weight against him.

            Hansen barely moved, sacrificing some of his grip to catch her with a savage left hook, and pushing her against the glass of the aquarium. Around them, curious pokemon swam about, wondering what this conflict was about. What civilians there had been, had already fled, leaving Lusamine and Chris Hansen alone.

            Two figures in a darkened tunnel, lit only by the surrounding water, struggling over a harpoon. Perhaps it was beautiful in its own cruel way.

            Lusamine whirled them around, taking the opportunity to switch her and Hansen’s positions, now keeping him pinned against the glass. She tried to raise the harpoon, to press its shaft against his throat, and was punished with a knee to the groin, and a headbutt. She stumbled back a few steps, tripping over her own high heels and gripping the far wall for support. Hansen readied the harpoon, before slashing at her, knowing that she wouldn’t have time to get out of the way.

            The old, rusted blade cut across her arm and shoulder, drawing blood, and a pained scream from Lusamine. He went in for a second attack, only to drive the point of the harpoon into the wall beside her, as she ducked past his attack, and caught him with an uppercut.

            Frantic, Lusamine pulled the harpoon from the wall, and slammed Hansen across the jaw with the blunt end. She kicked him in the stomach, before quickly distancing herself.

            She could see the dark outline of a Wailord behind the glass, and cracks on the surface from their fight. Chris Hansen was starting to pick himself up again, only to pause as he saw Lusamine ready the harpoon for throwing.  
    “This won’t stop, Madame President.” He warned, “Just think about what you’re doing. Give it up. Put it down and have a seat over there. You don’t want to make this mistake.”

    “Oh but I do. To the last, I grapple with thee…” Lusamine spat, “From hell’s heart I stab at thee! For hates sake, I will spit my last breath at thee! Thus… I give up my spear.”

            As she threw the harpoon, Chris Hansen dove out of the way. The metal shattered the thick glass, and gallons of water quickly filled the room. Both Hansen and Lusamine were pressed against the far wall as everything around them flooded. A Wailords confused cry sounded out through the salty water, and in a desperate bid to escape, Lusamine tried to breech the surface. To her fortune, she succeeded!

            The oxygen in her lungs was wonderful. She drank it in, before swimming to the closest thing she could. The Wailord itself, visibly distressed that its tank was leaking, but not too much to deny the woman the chance to climb onto its back.

            In the rush of water, she’d lost one of her shoes. Her hair was a mess, and she was cold. But she was alive.

            Panting, Lusamine lay on the back of the Wailord for a few moments, before starting to stand. She noticed a few people who’d been watching the pokemon, and stared blank eyed at them, before meekly throwing up her arms as if to say: ‘What are you looking at?’

            She heard the pokemon groan, and turned to look over her shoulder, heart stopping in her chest as she watched Hansen climbing onto the pokemon’s back behind her. She slipped off her remaining shoe, and hurled it at him. Hansen caught it, and chucked it back at her. It caught her in the forehead, stinging where it’d hit, before falling into the water.

            Lusamine held up her arms in a defensive stance, as Chris Hansen removed his soaking wet suit jacket. He wrapped one of its arms around his wrist, before swinging the rest of his jacket like a whip. It caught Lusamine’s arm, and he tugged her forward, catching her in an uppercut, before delivering several merciless punches to her stomach.

            Desperate to recover, Lusamine swung for his head, only to miss and stumble past him. Hansen jerked her arm forward, and twisted it behind her back before he elbowed her in the spine. Again, he tugged on his suit jacket, forcing her to turn once more. A movement that was punished with a savage cross to the cheek.

            Lusamine fell back, the body of the Wailord jiggling beneath her. The only benefit of her fall was that she managed to slip free of Hansen’s suit jacket. As she tried to stand, he swung his wet jacket yet again, catching her in the face. It hit her with a loud clap, and stung like all hell.

            Hansen rolled his suit jacket up, not unlike how an adolescent boy might use a towel, before whipping it at her once more. This time, it missed, but only barely. His next swing, saw his jacket wrapping around Lusamine’s arm once more, and again he tugged her closer. But this time she held steadfast, tugging him back towards her instead.

            Hansen skillfully avoided any blows she may have landed on him, instead knocking her ankles out from under her, and whipping his jacket at her again. It struck the Wailord instead, which let out a pained bellow, and began to submerge itself for protection.

            Hansen looked around, as water began to flood over the pokemon’s back, and Lusamine took full advantage of his lapse in focus, double kicking him in the stomach and knocking him over. Hansen rolled off the side of the Wailord, and into the water once more, as the Aether President stood triumphant on the sinking pokemon.

            Her eyes settled on the nearby stands, designed so an audience could gawk at the Wailord, and she broke into a sprint, leaping for the safety of dry land, and only barely making it. She botched the landing, collapsing helplessly as she made it, and slowly starting to pick herself up again.

 

     “Are you insane!” A voice called to her, and Lusamine looked up to see another figure approaching her. Another man in a suit.  
    “This will cost MILLIONS to repair! Do you have any idea the damage you’ve done? The revenue you’ve cost me?!”

    “Are you the owner?” Lusamine asked tiredly.  
   “You’re Goddamned right I am! And do you know who you are? You’re gonna be paying for this catastrophe!” They warned, and she merely scoffed. Despite their efforts, she really wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. Given that she’d already survived both a helicopter crash and a car accident during the course of this destructive brawl, nothing he could do could possibly scare her.

    “Wailord are only beautiful in the wild… that you’d keep one in captivity is harmful and disgusting. I’ve done you a favor. Release that pokemon back into its proper habitat, or else it will be dead within a few years at most.” She said.  
    “Oh yeah? I don’t think you’re in any position to be a bleeding heart, lady! Just who the fuck do you think you are, the president of the goddamned Aether Foundation? You’ve still damaged my aquarium, and somebody’s gotta pay for it!”

            From the corner of her eye, Lusamine saw Hansen starting to climb out of the water behind her.

    “Then just bill me.” She said, before seizing the man by the lapels. She hurled him towards Hansen, watching as the stumbling Aquarium owner barreled into her adversary and before tumbling into the Wailord tank, dragging Hansen back down with him.

            Lusamine turned and sprinted as fast as she could, past the stands and towards the exit of the aquarium, hoping that she had at least enough of a head start to escape Chris Hansen.

 

            Emerging onto the street, passerby’s investigating the prior accident looked at Lusamine as if she’d come from another planet. She could hear sirens in the distance, and pulled her wet hoodie tighter over herself. That nip in the air felt like it was cutting straight through her.

            She found herself walking away from the aquarium, crossing the street and merging into a crowd of onlookers. Her timing had been perfect, as she watched several police cars pulling out front of the aquarium. Several Officers stormed inside, and she could see Chris Hansen pushing past them, looking around frantically for her. He clutched the harpoon from before, ready to use it on her. Lusamine moved a little further back in the crowd, doing her best to hide herself, without giving up her field of vision.

            Two officers surrounded Hansen, speaking to him, and seemingly arguing with him. Some viewers from the crowd of gawkers shifted forward to try and listen in and get a closer look. Lusamine, however found herself eying one of the now empty police cars. She could hear it running, carelessly left by one of the officers. The crowd of onlookers was still watching closely, and Lusamine calmly made her way closer to the police car. A couple of officers tried to control the crowd, but none of them noticed Lusamine herself. Undetected until the last moment, she entered the vehicle, and closed the door.

   “Ma’am! You can’t be in there!” An officer called for her, and Lusamine simply turned on the siren, before hitting the gas. As the police car pulled away, Hansen looked over at her in shock, before sprinting past the other police officers, and trying to catch up to her new escape vehicle. But he was just a man, he couldn’t outrun a vehicle. She could see him shrinking in her rearview, readying the harpoon to throw, and launching it desperately at her. She heard the crunch as it was dug into the metal trunk of the stolen car… and then watched as Hansen was pulled off his feet and dragged behind her.

            Her heart skipped a beat. He’d utilized the rope on the old whaling harpoon, keeping himself tethered to her. So long as the harpoon was embedded in the vehicle, Hansen would be there. Lusamine crushed the gas pedal, hoping to shake him lose, to no avail. She swerved against traffic, but Hansen persisted, and worse yet, he was trying to climb further up the rope.

            Grimacing, Lusamine shifted the car into reverse, and tried to back over him. That proved to be a mistake. He’d seized the moment, making himself stand, and as her back bumper had crashed into him, Hansen had seized hold of the harpoon, and tried to climb on top of her vehicle.

            Swearing, Lusamine hit the gas again, forgetting to shift the vehicle out of reverse. It shot backwards, and she spun the wheel, trying to shake him once more. Hansen remained steadfast, nearly losing his grip, but holding tight. Her vehicle made a U turn, before continuing in reverse, further away from the aquarium. She forced her vehicle into oncoming traffic, trying to force him off with a crash, but oncoming traffic seemed disinterested in a collision. Vehicles of all sorts swerved around her, and she could see Hansen starting to climb on top of her vehicle. She hit the brakes suddenly, and could hear a thump on the roof as Hansen lurched forward. A truck grazed the back of her vehicle, forcing her into a spin, and once more she hit the gas, speeding against the traffic.

            She could hear Hansen on the roof, moving around as she drifted back onto the proper side of the road. She swerved between lanes, trying as hard as she could to shake him, but still it was hopeless. The road had become a skyway, moving higher and higher up. She heard a knock on the passenger side window, and looked over to see his fist crash against it. Every punch brought him closer and closer to breaking the glass. She could only look on as he finally broke through. The wind howled through the broken window, and a moment later, Chris Hansen slipped through, feet first, his shoes striking her in the face and slamming her head against the adjacent window.

            The police car swerved, hitting the concrete of the skyway, and breaking through it. Lusamine could see the rooftop of a building below coming closer and closer, and when the police car hit, it hit with a deafening crash. The airbags deployed, hitting her hard enough that she saw stars, and though she wasn’t certain, she thought Hansen may have kicked her again.

            Blinded, but still speeding, the police car swerved across the roof of the building, launching itself off the edge and through the window of an adjacent museum. The police cars abused tires gave out as it rampaged through a hallway filled with delicate pieces of ancient history from the Sinnoh region, and the vehicle finished its journey by crashing into the replica of a mural from Mt. Coronet.

            For a moment, all was silent.

 

            The door of the stolen cop car fell off when Lusamine tried to open it, and she collapsed out onto the floor. The siren continued to blare, as she crawled along the ground, in clear agony. Grabbing at the wall, she stood up, and looked back, praying that Chris Hansen would finally be down for the count.

            But she saw him alive. Crawling on the ground like she had been, his shirt more red than white, but none of his many injuries were enough to stop the man.

            Crouching down, Lusamine picked up the police car door, grunting in exertion, before holding it like a shield and steeling herself to move again. As Hansen stood up, she charged at him, slamming into him with the car door and sending them both sprawling to the ground. They both lay still for a few moments, before picking themselves up, and taking defensive poses.

            Both combatants looked worn out after so much fighting. Both were soaked, dirty and bloody. Lusamine’s stolen hoodie was already ripped, and had come undone her shoes were missing, and her hair was a disaster. Hansen had lost his tie and suit jacket. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his button down shirt, which was mostly ruined, bloodstained and starting to come undone. It’d come untucked from his trousers long ago, and he looked less like a famous journalist and more like some common street thug. Both of them were at a loss for words, and too exhausted to even speak.

            Hansen moved first, stepping onto the car door and swinging at Lusamine. She let her arms take the hit, before dishing out one of her own, into his stomach. His fingers dug into her hair, tugging it as he dragged her away from the wreckage of the police car, and slammed her against another display of artifacts. A priceless vase shattered, and Hansen kneed her in the ribs, before tossing her aside. She stumbled and tripped, falling near a stairwell leading to a lower level of the museum.

            Hansen snatched up another artifact, a lead statue of Arceus, and advanced on  
Lusamine as she slowly stood up. She wasn’t given any time to think, before the  
tossed the statue at her. She caught it, but the weight set her off balance. She found herself toppling backwards once more, and down a flight of stairs.

            At the top, she could see Hansen coming down after her.  
   “I warned you!” He said, “You’ve got no one but yourself to blame for this, just like you’ve got no one but yourself to blame for your children leaving you.”

            Lusamine crawled away from him, spotting another display, full of artifacts recovered from a dig site in Unova, and making her way towards it, standing slowly as she got closer. She could see a bronze khopesh sword among the artifacts… she could almost reach it…

            Pain struck her again. A fist to the ribs, and she yelped like a kicked dog. She grabbed for the sword, as Hansen seized her by the shoulder and jerked her back, his fingers digging into the fabric of her hoodie. He slugged her in the face, getting a solid three licks in before she slipped out of the hoodie in her desperate struggle to escape. She snatched up the khopesh, before brandishing it, holding it between herself and Hansen.

            Hansen hurled the hoodie back at her, and Lusamine batted it aside with the sword, before letting out a manic cry and rushing the man. The sword cleaved through thin air as he stumbled away from her, trying to distance himself from her before she could seriously hurt him. Lusamine' heart was pounding in her ears as she chased Hansen down the hall. He snatched up anything within arm’s reach to throw at her. Decorative plates and tablets were knocked aside carelessly by her khopesh, as Chris Hansen frantically backpedaled.

            She lunged once more, slashing to the side and catching Hansen in the chest. The cut she left wasn’t deep enough to seriously wound him, but it still bled and he still screamed. In desperation, he kicked at her knee, bringing her down for just a moment. Long enough for him to pin her, and punish her rampage with several vicious blows to the face. She weakly tried to swing the blade, bringing it down against Hansen’s arm, and leaving a deeper cut. The pain shocked him enough to allow her to push him off, and scramble to her feet. She raised the khopesh over her head to deliver a fatal blow, only to be met with a stern kick to the chest, which sent her clumsily stumbling back against another display.

            Hansen snatched an Ancient Unovan boomerang from the far wall and hurled it at her. The wooden weapon caught her in the shoulder, and instead of coming back, landed uselessly on the ground. His second boomerang missed outright, and she charged him with the khopesh once more, burying it in the drywall where he’d been just moments before once he drunkenly scampered out of the way. She tried to pull it free, to no avail.

            He spotted a golden mace, shaped like a Bouffalant, and snatched it up, swinging it at Lusamine. The weight of the mace was awkward, and his control was lacking. She saw it coming and moved to avoid it, but her khopesh wasn’t so lucky. The ancient sword snapped in half before she could pull it from the drywall again, leaving Lusamine with just the handle, which she immediately discarded.

            Hansen made his next swing, smashing another display as Lusamine rushed out of his path. Now she was the one retreating, although not for long. Her eyes darted along the walls, looking for another weapon to use, before she spotted it. A fan axe.

            Avoiding another clumsy swing from Hansen, she snatched it off the wall, before distancing herself from her quarry. Hansen lifted the mace for another swing, and Lusamine met it, the dull blade of her axe wasn’t able to do much against the golden shaft of the mace, but it was enough to deflect it, and send it smashing into the wall instead. She kicked out at Hansen twice, catching him in the stomach and ribs before pulling away from him. He tugged his mace out of the wall, before feinting her with it. She fell for it, and was punished with a harsh blow to the shoulder. She thought she could hear the bone crack. The pain was immense, and she heard herself screaming. From the corner of her eye, she could see Hansen make another swing for her head.

She moved as quickly as she could, dragging her fan axe behind her as she retreated back to the stairwell. Hansen sprinted after her, swinging his heavy weapon and missing once more. Lusamine was counting on that. She ducked his swing, and stepped to the side before ramming into him with her good shoulder.

            Chris Hansen stumbled, and bumped against the railing of the staircase, and all it took was a well placed kick from Lusamine to send him over it. She heard the telltale crash of a destroyed display below, and looked down to see Hansen laying atop a now destroyed suit of armor from Kalos. His mace had rolled away from him, and Hansen was stubbornly trying to stand again.

            Lusamine climbed onto the railing, and leapt down onto him, catching him in the back of the head with a vicious drop kick. She’d hoped that it might break his neck, but she wasn’t so lucky. Both she and Hansen tumbled to the ground, and she scrambled to her feet, fan axe at the ready as she threw herself at him again. Her haste was punished as Hansen spun around, the helm of the armor in his hand, and dashed it against her head. As she faltered, he grabbed the shaft of her axe, and tried to wrestle it from her.

            Though dazed, Lusamine held on tight. She felt Hansen kicking at her legs, and tried to avoid him, before kicking back. Their hands remained tight on the handle of the fan axe, as they spun each other, each trying to force the other to lose their grip on the weapon, and each trying to slam the handle into the others face. Her disorientation from the helmet to the face ultimately crippled her far too much in this struggle. Hansen managed to get the edge, slamming the shaft into her forehead, before kicking her back into the pile of collapsed armor. Readying the axe, Hansen jabbed it at her, a maneuver which would have certainly beheaded her if the weapon had been at all sharp.

            That never occurred to Lusamine however. She seized the abandoned chestplate of the armor, and held it up to shield herself. The dull axe clanged against the metal, leaving a dent. Scampering backwards, Lusamine scrambled to her feet and kept herself at the ready for Hansen’s next attack. The armor deflected it again, and she seized the opening to swing her chestpiece and catch him in the head. Hansen stumbled to the side, and Lusamine cast the armor aside and grabbed him from behind. She had no weapon to use on him… so she made use of what she did have.

            She pulled her wet hair against his neck, tightening it like a garrote and wrapping her legs around his torso, clinging to his back like a knapsack full of hate. Hansen tried to loosen the choking edge of her hair against his throat, but to no avail. He elbowed her in the ribs, but it didn’t weaken her. She too a sick pleasure in his choked gasps for air as she strangled him.

            Chris Hansen lumbered backwards into another display, trying to shake her off, and the pain of crashing through a glass case. Her grip slackened, not enough to escape her, but just a little. Grabbing her hand, Hansen sank his teeth into her wrist until he heard her cry out. Immediately, he pulled away from her, ripping out a chunk of her normally beautiful blonde locks. As Lusamine fell and hurriedly stood, Hansen slashed at her with his fan axe, leaving a shallow cut along her back and earning a cry of pain from the woman. She scrambled to get away from him, rushing towards a display of Kalosian tomahawks, and desperately throwing one at Hansen. The effect was not what she’d hoped for. The handle of the tomahawk hit him awkwardly and bounced off, leaving him with little more than a light bruise.

            He swung the fan axe once more, smashing a display on Kalosian shipmaking in another attempt to catch Lusamine, but she quickly distanced herself, and spotted a set of rapier blades on another wall, snatching one of them up with a triumphant grin. Now THIS. This was a weapon she knew how to use! Her college fencing was finally becoming useful!

            Chris Hansen eyed her cautiously, letting her come at him first. She held the rapier expertly between them, feinting him until she finally provoked him into yet another destructive swing. The axe passed harmlessly over her head, and Lusamine caught him in the head with a quick roundhouse kick, sending him off balance and crashing through a different display. The fan axe slipped from his grasp, and Lusamine kicked it away when he tried to grab for it.

            Her next few slashes came quickly and left him crawling backwards. His hand bumped the tomahawk she’d thrown at him earlier, and he held it to deflect her rapier, before kicking her back and standing. He held the tomahawk by a small rope strap near the bottom, twirling it like a Morningstar, before swinging it at her

            Lusamine backed out of its range, slashing to try and cut the strap, only to just deflect the tomahawk itself. Once more she found herself retreating through the halls of the museum, avoiding Hansen and his spinning tomahawk, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Getting too close to him would be too difficult. No… she’d need to get creative.

            As she retreated, she backed into a large display room, with a rather impressive plaster replica of the legendary pokemon Lugia suspended from the ceiling. An idea crossed Lusamine’s mind. Her eyes traced the rope keeping the replica suspended, and she dashed over to its anchor. Hansen pursued her, pausing only when he realized what her game was.

            He stopped dead in his tracks, right below the replica in the instant before Lusamine cut the rope. The last she saw of him, he’d been trying to flee it before it fell. The replica hit the ground with a loud crash, and Lusamine sprinted through the nearest exit she could find.

 

            Once more she was out on the street, looking back at the museum. She heard sirens, but she imagined they were just from the police car she’d crashed into the third or fourth floor. Her memories were fuzzy, filled mostly with pain. What floor she’d driven into didn’t particularly matter to her.

            Limping, Lusamine made her escape attempt, frequently glancing back to see if Chris Hansen was on her tail. She swore as she saw him emerge from the museum, tomahawk in hand. She cut through the parking lot of a nearby Denny’s, checking her phone. Her hopes hadn’t been particularly high, much as she suspected, the combination of water damage and several concussive impacts had all but shattered it. She cast it aside uselessly, deciding to give Hansen the slip before she tried calling for help.

            She slipped into the Dennys, brushing past the waitress and making her way for the kitchen. Hopefully, she could slip out the back door undetected.

            No such luck.

            The glass of a window shattered as Chris Hansen’s tomahawk sailed through it, and embedded itself in the fabric of a booth. The woman broke into a run, leaping the counter just as Chris Hansen burst through the door, in hot pursuit of her.

            Lusamine weaved through the kitchen, as Hansen hopped the counter behind her, snatching up a kitchen knife as he ran. She pushed through a back door, finding herself cornered in a fenced area, with nothing but a dumpster. She wasted no time in climbing it, and was safely on top when Hansen arrived behind her. She glanced at him, before jumping over the fence, listening as Hansen climbed the dumpster behind her, while she sprinted over a set of train tracks, and towards a nearby steelmill.

            In a full out sprint, she outsped Hansen, but there was nowhere to run, and he was gaining. She leapt onto an industrial conveyor belt, loaded with ore, and let it carry her upwards, watching as Chris Hansen followed her, climbing the conveyor in pursuit. Lusamine hurled a few pieces of ore down at him. A few caught him in the head, stunning him and causing him to lose pace, but in order to evade him, she needed to move.

            She fled up the conveyor, knocking down ore whenever she could to try and slow his pursuit. The conveyors drop off point was close, and she could feel the heat from the forge ahead on her face. There was no other escape though. As the conveyor reached its tipping point, Lusamine spotted an industrial catwalk just inside the forge, and in the instant before the conveyor threw her off, she made her leap, landing gracelessly and painfully on the catwalk.

            She weakly tried to stand, only to hear the thud of Chris Hansen landing the same jump behind her. She whirled around with her rapier, still partially on the ground, and parried the kitchen knife he’d taken from Dennys.

            Chris Hansen kneed her under the chin, knocking her flat on her back, and she blindly slashed at the air in front of her as she fell. Another kick knocked the rapier out of her hand, sending it plummeting into the molten steel below. The third kick, just plain hurt.

   “What are you doing?” Hansen asked, “Running, fighting… you should know by now that it’s hopeless, Madame President! You can’t win. Not against me. Not against Dateline NBC!”

            Every movement hurt, as Lusamine climbed to her feet, gripping the railing of the catwalk as she did. Hansen let her stand, before tearing into her with several brutal blows. Most caught her in the face and stomach. She gripped the railing for support as he beat her, before her legs gave out, and she fell again.

    “Give up. Have a seat over there, and let me take you in!” Hansen insisted. “It’ll be easier.” He brandished the knife, warning her of the alternative. Lusamine looked up at him, before spotting a small control switch a few feet away, affixed to the railing.

    “Don’t try it.” Hansen warned her, but they both knew words wouldn’t stop her.

    “See you in hell, Mr. Hansen.” She spat to him, before throwing herself at the switch. She reached for it, and Hansen threw the knife.

            She screamed as it pierced through her hand, the blade jutting out of the Pikachu face burnt into her palm. But the agony didn’t stop her. Her fingers caught the switch, and the entire catwalk jolted, splitting in half, and pulling the two fighters away from each other.

            Lusamine slowly stood once more, grimacing as she pulled the knife from her hand, and looking at Chris Hansen on the other side of the forge, watching him glare at her, before taking several steps back. At first, it seemed as if he was walking away or looking for a way around until…  
   “No…” She said under her breath, “No… please… no…”

            Chris Hansen began to sprint down the catwalk, preparing to leap over the straight drop into molten steel to continue the fight. He made his jump, and Lusamine could only watch in outright horror. But his ambition had proven short sighted, as had his leap. Hansen caught the edge of the catwalk, just barely, and dangled off of it. Lusamine took a step back to start running again, before the entire catwalk shifted beneath her.

            The two parts began to close back together, with Hansen still dangling precariously off the edge. She could do nothing but watch as he tried hopelessly to climb up, and glared hatefully at her through the grated floor. But the conflict had left him weak. He couldn’t climb up.

            The two halves of the conveyor pressed together, trapping Hansen’s fingers between them. The pain was enough to force him to let go, and she watched as he fell, plummeting down into the molten steel without a sound. There was no scream, there was no final word. There was just that judgmental stare… and then it was gone. He disappeared beneath the surface of the steel, and she knew that the battle was over.

 

            She knew it wasn’t her that had ended it. She glanced over at the switch she’d pressed before. She was too far now to have hit it again. Someone else must have hit a sister switch elsewhere… but…

    “Alola, cousin!” A voice called to her, and she looked across the catwalk as a figure appeared out of the haze of shimmering heat. She could see a switch identical to the one she’d pressed before in their hand, and a carefree smile on their face.

    “Wow! That whole fight was really something, you know?” They asked, “My heart was racing the whole time! I really thought you were done for at a few points! But I guess you won!”

   “Hau…” Lusamine said quietly, “You… Mr. Hansen…”

   “Oh, this?” Hau asked, holding up the switch. “Well, Chris was SUPPOSED to bring you in, but he wasn’t doing a very good job! I figured you were gonna kick him off anyways so I did it for you! I guess you could say he’s been… ‘fired?’” Hau laughed at his own joke.

    “Fired… wait… you… YOU were his employer?”

    “Uh-huh! Sure was! I got a job with the coolest organization! They call it: Founded  
United Corporation Keeping an Unfit Mother Outside of The Habitats of Exploited Rejects! I’m their director of operations, and all of this…” He extended his arms, “Me! It was all me, Miss Lusamine. It’s always been me, the author of all your pain!”

            He hit the button on the switch once more, separating the catwalks again.

    “Which makes me sad to have to say Alola again! I’ve had a lot of fun playing with you, but I’ve gotta go! It’s about to get REALLY hot in here soon, like. Dangerous, hot, you know, and I wouldn’t wanna be on your side of the forge when that happens! Let’s have a battle next time we see each other!”

            He happily waved to her, before turning away. The doors to the forge closed and locked behind him. Lusamine stared on in confused shock, not fully believing that Hau had just locked her inside an overheating forge.

            She shook those thoughts from her mind, quickly looking for an escape, before finding one. A ladder leading back up to the top. She reached out to grab it, only to recoil as the hot metal burnt her hand.

            Grimacing, she tore part of her skirt, and tried it again. Still warm, but bearable. Slowly, she began the slow climb, feeling the burn of the metal against her legs and arms, but enduring it for the sake of survival.

 

            At last, Lusamine emerged out the top of the forge, and collapsed onto another catwalk, panting tiredly. She spied two factory workers nearby. They looked at her with confusion and awe.  
    “Gentlemen… please… may I borrow one of your phones?” She asked.  
   “Uh… y-yeah, sure, Lady.” One of them stammered, handing it to her, “Anything else you need or…”

   “Some cold vodka would be lovely. Lacking that, sparkling water… please and thank you.”

            The second worker ran off, as Lusamine dialed for a ride one last time.

 

            The sound of sirens blared in the distance. Lusamine was long gone, rescued by her foundation and taken to a private medical facility to treat her numerous injuries. The workers of the steel mill had been permitted to leave early, due to the chaos that had erupted at work. And in the forge, the molten steel waited, its surface undisturbed save for a few bubbles.

            A hand slowly rose from the molten steel. Trembling... alive... vengeful... reaching

 


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the months following her battle with Chris Hansen, Lusamine finds herself lamenting the past, and when an opportunity to set things right passes, she does everything she can to try and take advantage of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A second part I wrote for the fun of it, and to use some ideas I never got to use in the old one. I probably won't do a third one, since the wonderful guy behind beautiful-lusamine has been working on one!
> 
> *Edit. Formatting fixed.

         

  Meat simmered in the oil that lined the hot skillet, as a familiar violin riff sounded through the halls of Lusamine’s new penthouse apartment. Voices could be heard in the next room, mostly English, but she detected a familiar heavy French accent.

Unova could be a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities, especially Castelia City. She rather liked it here, actually. The Urban setting was easy to get lost in, and building a life there was satisfying in its own regard. She could socialize, work and live on her own terms, all in privacy.

She’d purchased this penthouse under another false identity a few months ago. It was better than living in hotels, and although she had kept her ear to the ground, there was no indication of anyone or anything coming for her. Of course, she’d taken measures to disguise herself as best she could.

The chatting guests in the next room, newfound friends she cared little for, knew nothing about Lusamine. If asked, they wouldn’t recognize her name, and it was doubtful if they’d even recognize her face. No, the dinner guest she’d invited over had no idea who they were really with. On the contrary, to their knowledge, they were having dinner with an esteemed Psychiatrist by the name of Georges St. Clair. He was a skilled mentalist with a penchant for cooking and a beautiful Kalosian girlfriend by the name of Sévérine DuPont!

Sévérine knew the truth, of course. She knew it all, and she played along. Lusamine suspected she even enjoyed living a lie. She’d met her after the incident in Southern Kalos. Wicke had gotten her admitted to a hospital under her assumed identity at the time, but a nurse had recognized her from the jacket picture of her book. She’d treated her wounds, and stayed by her side, even after Lusamine had recovered. Now, she kept her around moreso because Severine seemed to like being around, over any other purpose.

It felt nice to live some sort of life, even if it was all a lie. To make her own income, as opposed to relying on covert meetings with Wicke to help her survive. She hadn’t seen Wicke in over a month now… and although a part of her missed her former associate, she was a little relieved to no longer be putting her in danger.

Sévérine was the only one who knew the truth about Georges St. Claire, who knew that the sharply dressed man, decked out in satin button down shirts and expensive vests, with long blonde hair tied back in an eloquent ponytail, and a neatly trimmed goatee, was all a façade. Makeup, a false moustache, all of these costume pieces attached to the woman who was once president of the Aether Foundation.

She knew that after the guests were gone, ‘Georges St. Claire’ would peel that goatee away, shake her hair from that ugly ponytail and unbind her chest so she could breathe, and she would be left with Lusamine… and for that she had no complaints.

Georges St. Claire, and Sévérine would emerge into the dining room followed by Sévérines Audino, carrying several plates of superbly prepared food into the dining room.

   “Gougère, Tartelettes aux escargots, un Soupe à l’oignon.” ‘He’ said, as the Audino set platters of appetizers down. The voice of Georges St. Clair was practiced to the point of perfection, holding a slight Kalosian accent that masked Lusamine’s true voice well enough.

“Please, do enjoy!”

“Dr. St. Clair, as always its looks stellar.” One of the guests said, helping themselves to one of the bowls of soup. Lusamine couldn’t remember his full name, only that he was a judge, and his surname was Mason.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where did you learn to cook?”

“Necessity, mon amie. Perhaps for personal enjoyment as well.”

Mason smiled, tasting the soup and letting out a hum of delight.

“Well, whatever it is. You’ve certainly got it pegged.”

“It is indeed, a very delicious meal!” Another guest said, drawing Lusamine’s attention, “I have heard great things about these dinner parties you have been hosting. It is wonderful to see that they were true! I greatly anticipate the main course!”

She didn’t recognize this guest, and a glance at Sévérine confirmed that she didn’t either. Odd… these events were by invitation only. The man had short, dark hair and intense eyes, which contributed to a rugged handsomeness that really made him quite the looker.

“Well, monsieur, it warms my heart to hear you say that. I don’t think we’ve been introduced. You must be one of Sévérine’s friends…”

She extended a hand to the strange man, who shook it eagerly.

“Ah? Yes! Me, I am Arthur MacLaine. It is how I am called! I am a friend of Justice Mason.”

Lusamine glanced over at the Judge in question, who nodded.

“I invited him along! I told him he simply had to make time for one of your parties! I hope you don’t mind!”

“Not at all.” Lusamine replied, smiling warmly, and extending a hand to him. “You’re welcome in my home, Monsieur MacLaine.”

“I am grateful to be welcomed, Dr. St. Clair.” MacLaine replied, reaching out to shake her hand. Their eyes met momentarily. For a moment, Lusamine’s heart jolted in her chest.

She felt as if this man, MacLaine (if that even was his name) was looking right through her disguise. As if he could clearly see past everything she’d set up to hide herself.

She pulled away as quickly as she could, retreating towards Sévérine, and trying not to convey her own urgency.

“Ah… but I should be getting back to the kitchen. Please, bon appetite. I’ll have the entrées out soon enough.”

Sévérine followed her back through the doorway of the kitchen, grabbing her hand when they were out of sight.

“Mon chéri, is anything the matter?” She asked quietly.

“I can’t say…” Lusamine replied, “That man… something seemed off about him.”

“He seemed alright to me.” Sévérine replied, wrapping her arms around her, “Relax, chéri. This is supposed to be a good night.”

Her head nestled into the crook of Lusamine’s neck as she squeezed her affectionately. Feeling her touch made her feel somewhat at ease, and for a moment, she felt just a tiny inkling of happiness.

Yes. Sévérine was right. She was just paranoid. There was nothing to worry about.

In the early hours of the morning, with the guests gone and her disguise removed, Lusamine sat with a glass of vodka on ice in her study, reviewing old notes. Old photographs of Nihilego.

Her fingers reached out, to touch the monitor as she recalled the lovely coo of her sweet beast. She closed her eyes, picturing it… and yet another image came to mind. A little girl, her daughter, Lillie clinging to her in her bed after she’d had a nightmare.

“ _Monsters aren’t real, right Mommy?”_

_“Of course they’re not, sweet one.”_

_“What about really scary pokemon? Like Hydregion?”_

_“They’re not monsters. They just want to make friends! Maybe one day, you’ll make friends with one too!”_

She recalled the giggle as her finger tapped Lillie’s lips, and the warmth she’d felt in her heart.

_ “Mon chéri?”  _ A voice asked from the doorway, and Lusamine barely looked over at the lover she’d taken for the past few months. She’d been beautiful once… once… but now, though she tried, it was hard to see it. The first time had been like that time in college, with Rebecca… perhaps better. Every time since then had served its purpose, but none of those other times mattered to her.

After the first time, she found herself unable to see Sévérine as beautiful anymore. This relationship only carried on to serve her own façade, and that was the only secret she kept solely to herself. A part of her told her she should leave. Move on and stop lying to the other woman… but she couldn’t make herself do that. She didn’t love, Sévérine. Not the same was she was loved, but she cared for her all the same… and the idea of ending this with her, of hurting her after all she’d done… that bothered her.

“ _ Revenez au lit avec moi… _ ” Sévérine purred, drawing closer. “ _ Ne travaillez pas si tard!”     _

  “ _ Ne t'inquiète pas pour moi, mon amour. Retourne te coucher. Je vous rejoindrai bientôt. _ ” Lusamine replied, faking a smile, and offering Sévérine a quick kiss. It seemed enough to satisfy her.    

  “ _ Mmm… Ne me fais pas attendre, ma chérie. _ ” The woman said, before turning to leave.               

As soon as she was gone, Lusamine sighed, and gave the schematics for the device to open an Ultra Wormhole another once over. Even if she could build one, it’d be impossible without a Cosmog to power it…              

A voice in the back of her mind, a voice that sounded a lot like Lillie’s asked:  _ Wasn’t there a time when this would’ve disgusted you? _

She shook her head, chasing the intrusive thoughts away.  __

_ No… Enough out of you… My Sweet Beast is waiting for me. Only it is worthy of my love!                _

     She sighed and shut down the computer, before standing up to join her lover in bed. Her eyes settled on the back of her left hand. The skin appeared smooth and immaculate. But if she squinted, she swore she could still see a pale white line from where Chris Hansen’s knife had impaled her… she hated that. As she left her desk, there was a small buzzing noise behind her. Her mobile phone. Frowning, Lusamine turned to pick it up and look at it. Seemed as if she had a new email. She scrolled through it quickly.               

_D_ _r. Georges St. Clair_

_Your services were recommended to me by a close associate of mine. I apologize for the late hour, but would it be possible for us to meet tomorrow? I’d like to discuss with you whether your treatment is right for me. Would you be able to join me for lunch?_

_ Sincerely. _

_ Ellen Jameson _

    Lusamine sighed, and sent an email confirming an appointment with this potential new client. It wasn’t unheard of to have such casual meetings with them. On the contrary, being in a more open and social environment helped some clients open up, as opposed to being in an office and talking. Whatever Ms. Jameson could say in reply could wait until tomorrow. Lusamine had a promise to keep to a girlfriend who loved her in a way she knew she could never truly reciprocate.

      The meeting with Ms. Jameson came sometime around noon, at a small diner on a desolate highway, outside the city.               

‘Dr. Georges St. Clair’ drove up on ‘his’ motorcycle, parking it out front and dismounting. The diner touted itself as the ‘Quarry’ diner. No doubt in reference to the nearby quarry down the road. Lusamine suspected it probably saw a lot of business from there.              

    Unzipping her leather jacket, she stepped through the door of the ugly little diner, nodding at the old waitress, having what was almost certainly her tenth or twelfth cigarette of the day by the window. She sat down in a booth, glancing at the menu with lukewarm disgust. All of it, greasy diner food. She supposed if she was forced to eat here, she’d go with a salad. They couldn’t possibly fuck up a salad, could they?              

    She looked around for some trace of the client she was supposed to be meeting, glancing over at the door. There were four vehicles out front. Hers, what she imagined was the waitresses, another she attributed to the cook and one with a man inside of it.  She found herself fixating on that man. He looked to be a chauffer of some sort… and the way he was looking at her… it reminded her of that man from last night. She didn’t like it. No. She didn’t like any of this. A strange man showing up last night, and now a strange client meeting in the middle of nowhere? She should’ve thought this through more! Shouldn’t have lowered her guard!              

    Lusamine was about to stand up. To leave as quickly as she could, before she heard someone sitting down in the booth across from her.  

“Dr. Georges St. Clair?” A young, female voice asked. Lusamine paused, before sitting down, and immediately freezing up as she got a look at the face of her ‘client.’ She should have known better. There was no ‘Ellen Jameson’. There never had been! The name itself was so obviously fake, she should’ve seen right through it!               

    Trying to maintain her composure, Lusamine spoke in the voice she’d practiced. A low accent, and a masculine voice.   

  “I am, oui… Ms. Ellen Jameson, I presume?”   

  “You know I’m not.” The girl across from her replied, “Just like I know you’re not Dr. Georges St. Clair… Mother.”               

Lusamine and Lillie sat across from each other, staring each other down.

“You found me…” Lusamine said calmly, her practiced voice dropping completely. “Well good for you… did you decide to come personally, as opposed to sending Hau or Mr. Hansen?”   

  “I’m not associated with either of them.” Lillie said, “Hau… he’s protective, and it’s changing him. Had I known what he would’ve done to Mr. Hansen… I would’ve… Miss Wicke would’ve…”   

  “You dropped his leash, didn’t you?” Lusamine crooned, “How sad for you… he’s coming for me now, isn’t he? This was all just a trap, wasn’t it?”   

  “I won’t pretend I haven’t been tracking you down.” Lillie admitted, “But Hau’s not involved! This is just for me. I needed to talk to you. I needed to ask you something.”   

  “Now would seem an appropriate time, wouldn’t it?” Lusamine taunted.   

  “I need you to put an end to this! Help Hau!”   

  “Help him? You saw the fires in Southern Kalos, didn’t you? You saw what he tried to do to me! Him and Mr. Hansen… I knew you were insultingly stupid but this? This is pathetic…”     

  “Don’t mock me, Mother.” Lillie warned, “I’m trying to fix this!”   

  “Then speak with him, not me.” Lusamine spat, before quickly lowering her voice. “I’m living a rather content life, thank you very much. I’d much rather be left alone. You’re the one who rejected my love… I gave you everything. I gave Gladion everything, and you both rejected me. Spat in my face! The only regret I’ll ever have in this life, is having birthed the two of you. Now… if you’re not here for a business inquiry with Dr. St. Clair, I do believe I’ll be leaving now.”             

Lusamine moved to stand up, but Lillie beat her to it.

  “No, you know what, Mother? I think I’ll be leaving! I… I can’t believe I did this… I can’t believe I looked for you, spent the time, the resources to find you, hoping maybe I could talk to you! Reason with you! But no… all you care about are your brainless Nihilego! You can’t even muster it in yourself to treat that Nurse right!”              

Lusamine’s eyes widened a little.  

  “That’s right, Mother! I know about her!” Lillie hissed, “And she knows about me! Why don’t you tell her how this meeting went? Tell her what sort of person you really are, and you can push her away like you pushed everyone else away! I should’ve left you in Ultra Space… let your precious Ultra Beasts pick your bones clean… if your regret was giving birth to me, then mine was ever bothering to try and help you! Give my kind regards to Hau when he finds you!”               

With a final huff, and tears welling in her eyes, Lillie turned and rushed out, stepping out of Lusamine’s life for what she wished to be the last time.               

For a moment, Lusamine sat there, quiet and contemplative, before the smoking waitress drew closer to her. 

  “Sir, I’m sorry but I couldn’t help but overhear that…” They said, their voice raspy and their breath, nauseating. “Seems to me that, that kid… they really give a damn… I mean, guess they pulled out some stops to set this meeting up. Y’know, they were hiding in the kitchen waiting for you to come in so they could sneak up on you. Guess they didn’t want you to see ‘em and run… I dunno if they’re your kid or not, but just between you and me… I wish my kids gave that much of a fuck.”              

    Lusamine just stared as the vehicle Lillie had arrived in disappeared down the highway, speeding further and further away, out of her life. Even when it was gone, she found herself just staring…

“Anyways…” The waitress said, “We’ve got a special today on…”  

  “No thank you.” Lusamine said, standing up, “I… seem to have lost my appetite. My sincerest apologies.”              

She rushed outside, doing up her leather jacket once more and hopping on her motorcycle, before speeding after Lillie’s vehicle. It’d long since disappeared. An unmarked white van passed her on the other side of the road, escaping her notice. It was the only other vehicle she’d seen on this highway, but she didn’t care. She just needed to find her daughter… and for once, just once, hear her out.               

     The skid marks on the road were the first sign that something was wrong… they led off the road, and into the quarry. Lusamine’s bike slowed and stopped. She let it fall as she rushed to the edge of the quarry, looking down over the steep incline. Her heart stopped dead in her chest.              

    Down at the bottom of the incline, in a totaled wreck, sat the sedan Lillie had arrived in.   

   “No…”               

There was probably a safe way down, but Lusamine didn’t give a shit. She rushed towards the incline and slid down it, nearly tripping a few times, but keeping herself steadfast… she had to see… had to know the truth…

 

“Lillie? Lillie!”              

A few workers were gathered around the accident, and Lusamine pushed them aside.

 

   “LILLIE!”              

One of the workers was pulling a body from the wreckage. She couldn’t get a good look at it.

  “Move. MOVE, GODDAMNIT! LET ME SEE MY DAUGHTER!”              

    She pushed a man out of her way before at last, she could see who’d been pulled from the vehicle. It was the driver, not her daughter.   

  “Is there anyone else?” She asked, “Anyone else in the vehicle?”

“No… no, I don’t think so.” A quarry worker stammered, “Just the guy.”   

  “He’s coming to!” Another worker called, and Lusamine rushed to his side, watching as the mortally wounded driver opened his eyes.     

  “Where’s Lillie…” She asked, her voice shaking, “Where the fuck is Lillie! Tell me now!”   

  “Grabbed her…” The driver rasped, “Right before they pushed us off… dragged her out of the car…”              

Relief washed over Lusamine. Her daughter hadn’t been in the wreck. She wasn’t dead! But that relief, was followed by a sinking feeling, like her entrails were being ripped out of her stomach… Lillie may have been alive, but someone had taken her…   

  “Who… who grabbed her…” She asked, gripping the driver by the shoulders. “WHO. GRABBED. HER!”   

  “A-Aether…” The Driver rasped, eyes locking with hers, before his body went limp. His eyes stared emptily into hers. Lusamine held him for a few moments, piecing together the information before letting the dead driver fall, and standing up.              

    She turned, walking away, and making her way back up the incline. As she reached her motorcycle, she peeled off her fake goatee, and tossed it into the wind, before freeing her hair from its ponytail.              

She no longer needed those lies.               

    She called Sévérine from a pay phone, leaving a message for her. She told her what happened. She told her where she was going… and begged her to lay low, and stay safe, before checking into a motel to make her plans.               

Returning home meant returning to the life she’d built. Returning to the life of Georges St. Clair, and she didn’t give a damn about that life right now. Lillie was all that mattered, and she replayed the last thing the Driver had said over and over again in her mind.                

Aether. Her own foundation kidnapped her daughter. It didn’t take a neuroscientist to figure out what it all meant. It all led back to Hau. She’d heard he’d taken over her precious Aether Foundation. She’d heard from Wicke that he was breaking… and that scared her. What would he do to her Lillie? Hurt her? Kill her? Tie her to an anchor and let her sink to the bottom of the ocean?              

No… she couldn’t allow herself to think like that. She had to think positive, at least until she found Hau! She sighed, picking up her phone, looking at the contact on the screen, before taking a breath and calling. She needed to speak with her before anything else.     

  “Dr. St. Clair?” Wicke’s voice was as pleasant as ever, and she heard no hint of affection there.      

  “Where’s Hau.” Lusamine asked, “At the Paradise? Where.”

“I’m afraid the President isn’t in at the moment.” Wicke said, although the way she spoke… she wasn’t dropping any pretense. She clearly wasn’t alone. Was Hau with her, or was it just some other employee? 

“It would be a little difficult to schedule a meeting with you, sir. But I can contact you again when a time opens up!” 

“I don’t care about that, Wicke. Lillie. Does he have Lillie?” Lusamine asked, her voice almost desperate.

“I think that would be filed in Lab B, below the facility. But I can check for you!” Wicke said. The translation was simple. Wicke didn’t know.     

“Thank you, Wicke.” Lusamine sighed, “Let me know if you hear anything.”

“Anything for you…” The way she let it trail off, hinted at a sense of longing. Lusamine closed her eyes, remembering the way Wicke had spoken to her before. Back when she was President. Back when they could be together…           

She hung up, before she could say anything in response. She and Sévérine were a couple now, and though their relationship was nothing like what she’d felt with Mohn, or with Wicke, it still mattered enough to her.            

She suspected that Wicke, despite her best intentions would turn up nothing. If Hau wanted to hurt Lillie, he had to know better than to let Wicke of all people in on it. No matter what she’d gone along with, or how well she played his game, she wouldn’t abide any harm coming to either of Lusamine’s children. They were practically her own children! No, Wicke couldn’t help her. But there was another alternative… a very, very stupid alternative. But it might work. Sighing, Lusamine took out her phone, and checked social media, looking for a profile… and her next destination.            

The flight to Alola touched down at around noon. Lusamine had, had plenty of time to firmly put her plan together. But if it would actually work, was another question entirely.            

The prey she was after, was an ambush hunter. She knew that they weren’t after her. Not at the moment anyways. They clearly had another target in mind if they were in Alola. But making her presence too clearly known might lead him to act hastily, and she wasn’t looking for a fight. On the contrary, she wanted to speak with the man.            

On the taxi from the airport, to the motel on Akala Island, Lusamine downloaded several dating apps to her phone. She listed herself as a 20 year old male, and left the rest anonymous.             

Upon arriving the motel, she was placed in the center of its few rooms, and set her modest luggage down on the bed, looking around, before setting her phone down by the TV. She smoothed her hair down, before heading to the bathroom to examine it. As motel rooms went, she supposed she could’ve done a lot worse. The room was clean, with a single neatly made bed, with a tacky design on its sheets. The bathroom itself was pleasantly bland, although Lusamine noted gouges in the front of the bathroom door. Like large a pokemon’s claws had raked it while its trainer was inside.           

Her fingers traced the gouges. Two clean, deep ruts, like talons. Perhaps out of habit, a remnant of the old biologist inside of her, she found herself trying to identify the pokemon. But she only recalled seeing such gouges once before. Her eyes widened as she recalled where.              

In the arm of one of her own scientists, and the door of the room where they’d kept the Type: Full. That was the only pokemon that had made marks even similar to this. How the marks had gotten there, suddenly wasn’t much of a mystery.     

“Gladion…” She said under her breath, sinking to her knees and resting her head against the wood of the door.

“My sweet Gladion…”           

A pang of sorrow wracked her heart. She remembered the all too fresh resentment of the son who’d stolen her creation, and abandoned her. She still felt that resentment now. But as her fingers traced the scars in the door, she could piece together a small narrative.           

A pokemon that longed for its master, waiting impatiently outside as he got ready for the day. A pokemon that hated the idea of not being by their side, even if their messy licks would just ruin the hair he’d been perfecting. She knew enough about Pokemon behavior to know what these gouges were. They were too light to be malicious. They demanded entry, they were Null’s demands to be by Gladion’s side. They were marks of love. She laughed. Two outcasts she’d declared unworthy of her love, had used their rejection to bond. Perhaps if Gladion could thank her for one thing, it would be that.           

Lusamine stood up again, her thoughts on her son. She wondered if Hau had taken him too. She wondered if he still hated her for all she’d done. Perhaps he did, and he’d be right to do so. Perhaps it was fate that led her to this room, so she could see this. Shaking these thoughts from her mind, Lusamine turned away, and picked up her phone. She turned on the TV, and opened up the dating app, beginning to scroll through the girls featured on Akala Island.            

Most of them barely made a blip on her radar. They didn’t fit the profile of what the hunter she was after would use as a lure. Some of them were cute, one of them even reminded her of a younger Wicke, but she passed them by.            

At long last however, she found something. A profile belonging to a 18 year old girl by the name of Lilly, who bore an uncanny resemblance to her own daughter… and claimed to work in a malasada shop. That was who she wanted. She just knew it. She was too perfect in all regards.            

Lusamine scrolled through a few of her photographs. They seemed unassuming, but just a little too much so. Most of them were badly taken selfies. One even had her conveniently in her work uniform. Everything about her set off alarm bells. The girl even seemed to be online right at that moment.            

Lusamine sent her a message that made her grimace to write.               

_ Hey there cutie! _

She hated men who just so… openly solicited a woman like that. Her previous brief attempt at using a dating app had invited far too many of that sort. Hedonistic hounds who wanted nothing more but her body. As lonely as she’d been, she’d never once considered allowing them anywhere near her. But if her guess was right, this girl would play straight into her hands. She needed to be forward. She needed to initiate things. That was how her quarry worked…               

_ Hiya stranger!  _

 

The girl finally replied, and from there, things took off. Lusamine entertained her with small talk, attempting to flirt with her, and the girl on the other end seemed perfectly interested in all of it. The flirting quickly dropped most pretense, and soon after, Lilly the Malasada Girl gave her an address, a small suburb just outside Konikoni City, and invited her over to ‘eat out.’

Lusamine could already hear Sévérine whispering in her ear. _‘_

_ Tabarnak! Est ce que tu me trompes?!’  _

She could hear Mohn and Wicke whispering as well…

‘ _ You gotta do, what you gotta do, Luci…’    _

‘ _ I know where your real loyalties lie… I trust you… do it for Lillie! _ ’           

She sighed, and sent a final message to Lilly the Malasada girl.               

_ I’ll be there in a bit. Don’t get started without me, sweetie! _

With that last message sent, Lusamine closed the app and called for a taxi.              

She arrived at the house near nightfall, looking at the surrounding area, and planning both her entrance and escape. A knife, from Denny’s that she’d pulled out of her own hand some time ago, rested comfortably up her sleeve as she went to knock on the door.

“Come in!” Called a voice that almost certainly belonged to ‘Lilly’.            

Lusamine took a breath, steeled herself, and did just that,    

“You’re here…” Lilly said, her friendly expression quickly fading as Lusamine, the polar opposite of what she’d described herself as, walked through the door. The front hall of the house led into a large, well-furnished kitchen, with a granite countertopped island in the center. Adjacent to that was a door and some windows leading into a three season room.

 

“Oh…” The girl said, “Um… can I help you?”   

  “We spoke on the app.” Lusamine replied, forcing a smile. “I’m not what you were expecting?”  

  “Erm… heh, not really, no!” The girl said, laughing and pulling herself back into character. “Well, it’s good to see you anyways! I think this is more of a win for me anyways! You really should’ve said something! Hey, hold on a sec! I’ve just gotta get something! Wait right here, okay?”              

Lusamine just nodded as ‘Lilly’ hastily left her. She knew she wouldn’t be seeing her again. She’d seen this all before… all she needed to do was wait.   

  “ _ You’re not who I expected to see _ .” Came the voice of Chris Hansen. Yet Hansen himself was not in the room. His voice echoed, like it was from a speaker.

“You’re exactly who I expected.” Lusamine replied, “Come out, Mr. Hansen. I’d like to talk. Ideally amicably.”   

  “ _ You really expect that to happen _ ?” Hansen asked, “ _ After last time… you’re more naive than I ever imagined. But you’ve peaked my interest. Tell me, Madame Ex-President, why did you come? _ ”  

  “I’m here to talk. To make a business proposal, if you will. I didn’t come here to kill you.”   

  “ _ Really? And I thought you came here to die… _ ” Hansen scoffed, “ _ Give me a moment. I’m coming out. Make a move I don’t like, and I’ll kill you on the spot. My people are closing in as we speak. _ ”

“I even get an audience? This soon? How exciting.” Lusamine mused.

“ _ Only so you can see what you’ve done… _ ”              

    The doors opened, and Lusamine waited for the man to walk out… but he didn’t walk.              

Chris Hansen’s wheelchair slowly rolled towards her. What sat in it, was only in the strictest terms, a man. Cracked but hardened metal coated much of his body. His mobility was limited, save for his fingers. The rest of him seemed almost curled up. She spotted some glimpses of burnt, healing flesh between his new metal carapace… yet the most disturbing feature was his face.              

The molten steel had hardened against almost two thirds of it, creating a distorted partial cast of his face. Some portions were recognizable, and she could see his eyes behind the steel, glaring hatefully at her. The metal over his mouth was frozen in an eternal scream of rage. Two tubes ran into the metal that covered his cheeks, presumably allowing him to breathe.               

No sooner had he settled into place, then several figures, decked out in full riot gear emerged from hiding. Lusamine counted about eight. All of them were armed.     “You’ve barely changed.” Hansen said, his voice carrying a static echo, as it came from a speaker in his chair. 

  “You seem to be recovering well.” Lusamine replied, “I’d heard the injuries were bad… but I…”   

  “Bad? Heh… bad, she says. My wife left me. My children fled in fear at the sight of me! Bad? Go for a swim in molten steel, my dear. Then you try and look half as good as I do! Now out with it… what is it you want…”   

  “Hau.” Lusamine replied, “He… he made a move. I need to retaliate.”   

  “You want to take the fight to him?” Hansen asked, “I’d thought you more of the cowardly type… he did something serious, didn’t he? Did he hurt one of your pet squid?”  

  “Something like that.” Lusamine replied, remaining vague. “I’ll pay whatever you want. Just tell me what to do. Where to look. He’s left Aether Paradise. That much I do know. Where else would he be?”   

  “You expect me to know something like that? How close do you think I was to the boy?” Hansen spat, “He paid, I hunted. Nothing personal, Madame President. Rest assured our business arrangement is terminated!”   

  “You have to know something.” Lusamine insisted.

   “Then put something on the table. Take a gamble, raise the stakes! See if you get lucky…”              

She grimaced, and Hansen sighed.

“Molten steel does horrors to a person’s soft anatomy. Even if I had intended to proposition you, there’s nothing I could do to follow through on that aside from bump you with my chair, and I don’t think that’s your thing.”   

  “Treatment, then.” Lusamine said, “I can fund it. Have you taken care of. Maybe even reverse some of the damage. I can’t promise, but maybe get the metal off of you, skin grafts, whatever to make you whole again.”   

  “Promising…” Hansen murmured, “But how do I know you’ll deliver?”   

  “I can do it now.” She offered, taking out her phone, “I could call Wicke. Tell her what to do. You can be on the fast track to being your old self again.”            Hansen sat there, quiet but watchful.

“So do it… you helped put me in this state. Do it, and I might help you in turn.”

Lusamine dialed the number, putting Wicke on. The woman answered almost immediately.

“ _ Dr. St. Clair? _ ”      
  “Wicke, take some money from my private fund and start looking for a burn specialist. Someone who could treat a man who’s recovering from severe damage… skin grafts, metal removal… whatever comes up.” __

_   “Understood. Shall I contact you with the results?” _

  “That won’t be necessary. I’ll be putting you in touch with Mr. Chris Hansen. You can send the results to him.” Wicke went silent, before finally saying.

“ _ Yes, m… sir… I will.”  _ With that, Lusamine hung up.

“Wicke has never let me down. She won’t let you down either.” She said and Hansen huffed in approval.

“Did she call your sir? Well, well… you must’ve been buried very deep. Anyways, I suppose it’s a down payment…” He sighed, before rolling his chair closer to her.” A few of his men seemed to tense up.

“Stand down.” Hansen said, before glaring at Lusamine. “Don’t worry. They’re obedient. But don’t give them a reason to start shooting.”

“Just tell me what you know.” Lusamine said, “I don’t have a lot of time.” “Fine. What I know, is that Hau set up shop away from Aether Paradise. I suppose he’s letting your people continue their operations while he runs his pet project somewhere else. Tell me, Aether Paradise… what inspired you to create it…”    

“One of our previous outposts.” Lusamine said, “We refurbished an old oil rig… just outside Hoenn, I believe. I liked it as a base of operations, which is why I imitated it for Alola. What does that have to do with anything?”    

“That rig was one of many that you shut down to protect the environment. Hau found out about them. Got his hands on them.” He paused, remembering the agony he’d felt there. 

“If he’s anywhere… he’ll be there.” “We closed down dozens of oil rigs outside of Hoenn. Do you know which one it was?”     

“It used to be the one south of Dewford. But that place is abandoned now. I already checked.” Hansen said, “He must’ve cleared it out after killing me. If I were you, I’d take the next flight to Hoenn and charter a helicopter. That’s your best bet.”

“Mr. Hansen, it could take days to survey all those rigs!” She protested, “There has to be something else! He could’ve left Hoenn entirely! We’ve closed down thousands, if not tens of thousands of installations around the world! If he can access any one of those, he could be anywhere in the world!”

“This is all I know.” Hansen said coldly. “You blew my sting operation for information. You should be goddamned thankful that I didn’t just kill you on fucking sight! Take the information or leave it! You should go before I lose my patience.”           

As if to make his point, some of the Riot Geared guards behind him readied their weapons.

“Mr. Hansen. Should I give this order, to arrest this woman?” They asked, and Lusamine looked up at them. Their voice was familiar. She could see their face behind the visor of their riot gear, and her heart skipped a beat.           

She knew this man.    

 “Mr. MacLaine?”           

The man in the riot gear took a step back.

“What? No… I…” He paused, before raising his rifle, and opening fire.            Lusamine dove for cover behind the kitchen’s island, as the now rogue officer quickly dispatched the others in the room. She could hear the guns sounding off, and a loud, thunderous crack of a powerful, long distance rifle.           

Someone was covering the rogue guard from afar. She saw one of Hansen’s guards launched off their feet, while that strange man effortlessly brought down the rest.            

Hansen’s wheelchair reversed through the door he’d came from, and the decoy who’d called herself Lilly quickly pulled him to safety, before all went quiet.            Lusamine could see Hansen’s defeated guards laying on the ground in evident pain. Not dead, just stunned. “How did you see through such a perfect disguise?” The rouge guard asked. The visor of his helmet was cracked, and he pulled it up, allowing himself to see.

“How did you unmask me so easily? I would have wanted to avoid this kind of fighting, yes? But of course, I had no choice!”  “Who the hell are you?” Lusamine called from behind cover, “Why have you been following me? Do you work with Hau?”

“Amazing! You figured it out again! Truly astounding!” The man said, shaking his head in disbelief, “It is only fair that I give you an honest answer! I am not MacLaine, no. My real name is… no… that is classified information. My codename is… Looker.”           

Lusamine could hear footsteps as Looker drew closer to her, and slipped the knife from her sleeve. With that rifle in his hand, and the sniper covering him, sending out any of her Pokemon would only get them hurt.    

“I am here to bring you in safely! Hau told us he wants to bring you to justice, and as a member of the Ultra Beast Task Force of the International Police, I must admit that you are high on our priority list! After all, it was you who summoned so many dangerous creatures into this reality, and threatened to destabilize it completely! Young Hau is right. You can not be allowed to go around unchecked! For an Officer such as I, this is unacceptable to allow! So now, I am going to give you this choice. Please listen and choose wisely. You can come with me and my partner without starting another fight. Or we will have no choice but to use force to bring you in, and I do not want to hurt you or anybody else unless I have to!”           

Lusamine grimaced.

“I should’ve figured you were with Aether… that gun you’re carrying. Those are nonlethal rounds, aren’t they? I funded their design.” 

“Very observant, Madame Lusamine.” Looker said, drawing ever closer to her. She judged him as being on the other side of the island right now. 

“But I am told they’re still very painful against bare human skin! If I were you, I would not want to find out! So please, come with me!”

“If you wanna get your hands on me, you’re going to need to come around here and get me yourself.” Lusamine spat, and heard Looker’s footsteps starting up again. She’d been counting on that.           

As he rounded the corner of the island, she kicked at his legs, knocking them out from under him. As he fell, she caught him with another kick, this time to his exposed face. His rifle discharged, some of the rounds catching her in the shoulder.           

They stung fiercely. The rounds themselves had been designed to be electrically charged, intended to cause pain but no lasting damage. Mostly, they were a last resort to bring down dangerous pokemon. Too many of them could lead to unconsciousness. Lusamine stomped down on Looker’s wrist, over and over again until she saw the gun slip from his hand, and at last, she kicked it aside.            

No sooner was the weapon out of his reach, did Looker retaliate. The officer seized her leg, and used his now empty hand to catch her in the hip, knocking her off balance and allowing him a moment to get up.           

A thin trail of blood dripped down Looker’s nose, as he lowered the cracked visor of his riot gear helmet.

“Very poor decision.” He scolded, before launching a few hasty jabs at her. She evaded them both, yet found herself backed against the granite island. As Looker made his third jab, she slashed with her knife, feeling it scrape across the chestplate of his gear. It did nothing to stop the punch from coming, and she found herself knocked against the countertop. She made another, sloppy attempt to cut at his neck, just below his visor, and Looker caught it with his arm. Again, the knife just left a scratch on his riot armor, and he caught her wrist in a firm grip, and twisted it as hard as he could.            

Lusamine let out a cry of pain before releasing the Denny’s knife, letting it drop harmlessly on the ground, before Looker slammed his helmet against her forehead. Lusamine stumbled, pulling free from his grip and held the island for support.

“You’re not going to hurt me.” Looker warned her. “So please, I do not have any desire to harm you!”

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be working for Hau.” Lusamine spat, and Looker paused for a moment, seemingly distracted by that comment. She took the chance to seize his helmet, and slam his head against the granite countertop of the island. Throwing all her force behind the movement, she slammed his head down again and again, only stopping when Looker caught her in the stomach with his elbow. Though she was winded, she let herself retreat against the far countertop, and as Looker got up, she hit him with a well aimed fan kick. Looker’s hands closed around her ankle, painfully pulling her forward. It took everything she had to keep her balance, and she let herself fall back, gripping the counter for support, and bringing her other leg up in a parallel kick that struck him in the chin. This kick had more effect, and Looker slumped against the island, letting her go in the process.            

Free at last, Lusamine, took the opportunity to kick him again, knocking him off his feet, and onto the island. Looker lay stunned on the countertop for a few moments, long enough for Lusamine to push him off, onto the other side. As Looker landed on the floor, he let out a pained groan, looking up just in time to see Lusamine hopping over the island to finish him. He rolled out of the way as her foot came down where his head had been moments before, but couldn’t do anything to stop her kicking him in the stomach.            

Thanks to the riot gear, that blow barely hurt, and her next kick wasn’t able to stop him from getting up. A gunshot cracked from behind Lusamine, and she felt a sharp, stinging pain in her back. She let out a cry of pain, and stumbled forward a few steps.           

In the adrenaline filled rush of the fight, she’d forgotten about Looker’s long range backup, and now she was clearly in their sights. Looker seized her by the throat, and punished her earlier assault with one hard blow to the stomach. Lusamine vainly tried to knee him, but it just bounced harmlessly off his body armor. Looker tossed her aside before she could try again, and she hit the window of the three season room with a yelp of pain.     

“Please, let us stop this…” Looker said, breathless. “Before one of us gets hurt!”             Lusamine just tried to control her breathing, and assumed a boxing stance.

“No… you, you work for Hau… you know where he is, don’t you?”Looker frowned.

“If you are so interested in seeing him, I can think of a less violent way of doing so. Please! We are trying to help!” 

“Like Hansen was trying to help? What the hell do you think is going to happen when you bring me to that boy? He’ll give me a stern talking to? He’ll let you drag me off to a prison cell? No. He wants me dead, and when you hand me off, that’s exactly what he’s going to get. He might even do you next! Look at what he did to Mr. Hansen!”

“Mr. Hansen’s mutilation was an unfortunate accident.” Looker said, his voice calm and collected, “Hau himself told us so…” 

“Did he? Did he tell you I pushed him into the steel? That I made him what he is now! You saw him, didn’t you? Didn’t you? If I had done that to him, he wouldn’t have agreed to deal with me now, and I wouldn’t have left him to live like that! I would’ve left him alone, or killed him properly!”           

Looker just smiled and shook his head.

“I am sorry, Miss Lusamine. But you are not the first criminal who has lied to me in order to protect themselves.” There was a hint of doubt in his voice however. Lusamine considered trying to talk more, but she saw the muzzle flash behind him.            

Quickly, she moved, hearing the window behind her shatter, and Looker rushed to subdue her. His arms wrapped around her, encasing her in a tight bear hug she couldn’t escape from. Despite her struggles, the man seemed to be crushing her. His arm closed around her neck, while one hand pressed against the back of her head, trapping her in a sleeper hold. Lusamine struggled to breathe, her limbs flailing in a frantic effort to escape him. But no such luck.           

Maybe she was beat…             

A door in the hall flew open, and ‘Lilly’ the Malasada girl emerged, holding with her a pistol. She discharged several shots at Looker, all of them doing nothing against his riot gear, but the man was smart enough not to stand in the way of the bullets. He turned his back on her, his hold on her loosening up enough to allow Lusamine to breathe, while he dragged her with him and flipping the kitchen table for cover. The small bullets didn’t punch through the thick wood, and another loud report from the covering sniper quickly took ‘Lilly’ down. Lusamine could hear the decoy actress scream as she was hit by the round, and watched her drop the pistol, clutching the spot where she’d been hit. She couldn’t see any blood. The sniper must’ve also been using nonlethal rounds. The rifle fired a second time, and ‘Lilly’ was quickly knocked unconscious.             

The struggle had broken Looker’s concentration, and Lusamine spotted a bit of exposed skin between his glove and the sleeve of his body armor. She took the chance, and sank her teeth into it as hard as she could. Looker let out a yelp of pain, and his grip loosened enough for her to escape. Looker scrambled to his feet, rushing to try and capture her again. Thinking quickly, Lusamine sidestepped him, before she snatched up one of the dining room chairs and swung it at him. The chair caught Looker as he was turning back towards her, and splintered on impact. The force was enough to send the man through the shattered window, into the three season room.            

Looker lay on the ground, letting out an exhausted groan, before prying off his helmet and tossing it aside. The man looked worn down. He looked up as Lusamine stared at him through the broken window, before making her way to the door. Looker reached down to his belt, hitting a button on a transponder hitched to it.

“You and I are going to have a long talk.” Lusamine said, “If you know where Hau is, you’re going to tell me.”

“You and I are working towards the same goal, Miss Lusamine.” Looker said, “I want you to see Hau! Hau wants to see you and you want to see him! This violence… it’s exhausting and unnecessary. All this paranoid rhetoric… it is because of Nihilego! Perhaps Hau can cure you! Yes! That is what he must want with you! Of course! We can ask him before we take you!”

“I can tell from the look on your face that you know that’s bullshit.” Lusamine replied harshly. “I want to talk to Hau on my terms. I want to know where my daughter is!”

“Daughter?” Looker asked, with genuine surprise, “We… International Police was keeping her safe. Yes! It is the truth! You must believe me!”

“Keeping her safe? SAFE? I saw her yesterday!” Lusamine snapped, “I SPOKE TO HER! SHE WASN’T FUCKING SAFE! FIVE MINUTES AFTER SHE LEFT ME, FIVE MINUTES, AND HAU TOOK HER!”           

She seized Looker by shoulders.

“Tell me, Mr. Looker. TELL ME, IS THAT SAFE?”

“W-we left her with one of our best officers! He was her strict escort! He should’ve been with her at all times! I trained him myself!”           

Lusamine remembered the driver of the sedan Lillie had been in.

“If you’re talking about the man who was driving her around, Aether sent him off the road and into a quarry. He’s dead.”           

A strange expression crossed Looker’s face. Genuine pain. The news that one of the trainees he took such pride in had been killed… it gave Lusamine pause.

“I… No… impossible. I… I trained him! He was the very best!”

“You can thank Hau.” Lusamine said, “Now tell me, where is he? Here? Hoenn? Johto? Unova? TELL ME!”           

No sooner had the words left her mouth, did Lusamine hear the screech of tires. A blinding light filled the room, and she looked up, trying to identify its source. The blood drained from her face as she recognized what it was.           

An engine revved, and Lusamine let go of Looker. They both scampered clumsily out of the way as a black coupe tore through the wall of the three season room. The driver side door opened, and a woman emerged from it. Lusamine only had a split second to register the SMG in her hand, before she pulled herself through the shattered window, and hid herself. She could hear the rapid pop of gunshots, and the woman’s voice.

“Looker! Come on!”      

“Wait, Anabel…”

“We’re compromised! Time to evac!” Glancing at the window where Lusamine had hidden, Looker got into the coupe without further comment, while Anabel dropped the SMG and reversed the coupe out of the twisted remains of the three season room, and sped back out towards the road.           

Lusamine peeked out of cover as she saw them leave, and hopped back down into the room, grimacing at their escape route. She picked up the SMG Anabel had dropped, before checking the ammunition. The clip didn’t come out, however. The ‘SMG’ was little more than a realistic looking dollar store toy, only brandished to scare her off while they escaped, no doubt.            She swore under her breath, before racing back into the house. She spotted Lilly stirring and starting to get up, along with some of Hansen’s incapacitated riot guards, and walked briskly past them, before pausing as she noticed a set of car keys hanging by the door.            

She snatched them up, before hitting the panic button. She could hear the horn blaring from the garage, and hurried inside, pressing the button to open the garage door as she did.             The vehicle must have belonged to Hansen, since it was a large red minivan that had been customized to be wheelchair accessible. Right now, she couldn’t have given less of a damn about style. She just keyed the engine, and backed out of the garage, scraping the roof against the opening door, before taking off down the road. She could see the taillights of Looker and Anabel’s coupe up ahead, and hit the gas to try and catch up to them. But the minivan couldn’t match the coupe in raw speed. Their vehicle was designed to be a getaway car. This, was designed to transport Hansen. Lusamine watched them take a hasty left turn, and knew she’d lose them if she didn’t act fast. She jerked her wheel to the left, tearing over someone’s lawn, and crashing the van through a wooden fence, and through a backyard, before emerging into a park. She could see the coupe making its getaway on the other side of the park, and sped towards it, cutting across an empty baseball field, and finally making it to the road, much closer than before.            

The coupe swerved, cutting off other traffic in an effort to shake her, before taking a sharp right to avoid her. It was here that the coupe’s weakness was made apparent. Much like a Linoone, it traded streamlined speed for turning capability. The coupe needed to slow in order to turn, and those precious few seconds allowed Lusamine to push herself closer. The front of her minivan bumped against the rear of the coupe as they swerved yet again, making their way down towards the downtown area of the city.            

Lusamine was not deterred. She remained hot on their trail, occasionally closing the distance enough to bump them and remind them that she was close. Again the coupe wasted precious seconds to swerve off the road, although this time they were sloppier in their maneuvers, cutting over sidewalk and curb to escape her, and leaving the road entirely. Diligently, Lusamine followed, barely noticing the sign that declared, “Diglett’s Tunnel.” She did however recognize the location. Not only had her foundation operated here… but she’d heard a Nihilego had been spotted here.           

The dark coupe sped into the tunnel, and Lusamine followed, trading the smooth, lit streets for a bumpy, pitch black ride. She felt the van shake as it cruised over a rocky terrain it was never meant to handle, and through the darkness, she swore she could see the taillights of the coupe tediously navigating a snaking trail down. She forced her van to the left, off the trail, feeling it shake as it dropped a few feet. One of her headlights was shattered and went dark, while the coupe veered off the path as well to avoid running into her. Lusamine watched as it clumsily crashed down the many layers of incline, only damaging itself, but she’d be damned if she let them get away now, so down the incline in pursuit she went.            Both vehicles crashed against the hard ground, eschewing the safer, defined path in favor of recklessly racing to escape the tunnel. Lusamine made it to the exit first, and found the headlights of the coupe in her rearview mirror, and growing further away, as if they were considering turning around to escape her. If that had been the plan, they quickly abandoned it, in favor of following her out of the tunnel.            

Moonlight soon enveloped both speeding vehicles as they passed through the other end of Diglett’s Tunnel, and into HeaHea city. Spinning the wheel, Lusamine turned the van around, and hit the gas, sending the vehicle charging at the coupe, which nimbly tried to evade her. She slammed into their rear side, making the coupe rock, before it tried to put some distance between them. Its control was shaky at best, as it took a right towards Grand Hano Resort. Lusamine quickly caught them once more, passing them on their left, and ramming them from the side once more.           

A wheel on the coupe blew out, no doubt a result of the damage Diglett’s Tunnel had done. Sparks flew from the undercarriage of the vehicle, and Lusamine rammed them again as they approached the bridge. The coupe veered out of control, and despite Anabel’s attempts to correct it, she could do nothing to stop it crashing full force into the rail of the bridge. Metal bent outwards, as part of the coupe wrapped around it, and Lusamine stopped the van, parking it and getting out.            

She was sore and panting, but damn well determined to get what she needed out of these cops. Slowly, she made her way towards the coupe.             

The crash had knocked Anabel out completely, and as she awoke, it took her a few moments to reacquaint herself with the world. The airbag in her face had saved her from any serious damage, and she could already hear Looker getting out of the vehicle. Through the open passenger door, she could see Lusamine approaching, and heard the drivers side door opening beside her.

“Come! Hurry, hurry!” Looker said, although his voice seemed distant.

“Evac… r-right…” Anabel murmured, shakily forcing herself to stand as Looker pulled her from the vehicle. She glanced at Lusamine again, noticing that the woman had stopped.

“Are you ready to tell me what I want to know?” She asked, “Or do I have to start hurting you?”           

Looker traded a look with Anabel, remaining silent, before glancing at the Grand Hano resort, just over the bridge. Lusamine began to approach again, and Looker made a split second decision.           

Anabel was only afforded a brief warning from the look in his eyes, before he pushed her over the bridge, sending her plummeting into the cold water below. The only benefit of that, was that it seemed to shock her awake. Looker followed soon after, leaping from the bridge and into the water, the weight of his riot gear pulling him under. Anabel watched in in a panic, as he hastily shed his riot gear, dropping the heavier pieces entirely and letting them sink before he came up for air. Relieved, she grabbed his arm, and pulled him towards shore. She glanced up, spotting Lusamine still on the bridge, looking down at them, before she rushed back to the van.             They’d jumped! When faced with a choice between jumping off a bridge and capture, they’d chosen to jump! Lusamine could barely comprehend such near suicidal behavior, but it hardly mattered now. She reached the van, and keyed the engine once more, hearing it rev, stall, then die. Her second attempt was no better. It seemed that her off-road excursion had gone and killed the vehicle. All that meant to her was that she’d need to give chase on foot. Swearing under her breath, Lusamine sprinted unsteadily towards the Grand Hano resort, occasionally looking over the edge of the bridge, trying to gauge where they intended to come ashore. She could see them getting closer to the resorts mostly empty beach.           

She closed the distance before they could, arriving just as Looker and Anabel stumbled amongst the waves in the shallows to reach dry land. She stopped a few feet away, as Anabel glanced up at her with a look of shocked, wide eyed hopelessness on her face, as Looker tugged her sleeve.

“Come on! Come!”            

She shrugged him off.

“Get a boat… I’ll keep her off your back.” Anabel said, taking a small butterfly knife from her belt. Looker’s eyes shifted from the knife, to Anabel, to Lusamine, before he took off towards the docks. She moved to follow him, but Anabel cut her off, holding the knife between them as she threw herself between Lusamine and Looker. She could only watch as the Detective made his escape, before sizing up her new opponent. Despite her stance, Anabel looked almost meek in the way she held the knife. There was a clear reluctance to use it, and that was enough to convince Lusamine that rushing her would work.           

As she did so, Anabel stumbled back a few steps, wildly slashing the air in front of her. The blade nicked Lusamine’s arm, before she seized the woman by the wrist, and caught her with a firm punch in the stomach. Anabel let out a wheeze of pain, before slamming herself against her, trying to bring the knife down on her again only to miss. Lusamine struck her with a firm backhand, before kicking her legs out from under her, and throwing her into the sand. The knife slipped from Anabel’s hand, and she quickly snatched up a handful of sand, and hurled it at Lusamine’s eyes before scrambling to her feet.           

The grainy cloud of sand blinded the older woman, which provided ample opportunity for Anabel to strike. She kneed her in the stomach, and followed up with a hurried, but nonetheless painful right hook. She moved in for another hit when Lusamine managed to retaliate. As she came in for another punch, Lusamine seized her by the arm, and returned her prior blows, landing a firm gut punch, followed by a harsh uppercut, before jerking her forward and pushing her back down into the sand. As Anabel started to get up, she was punished with a kick to the face. She cried out, and was left writhing in pain, in the cool sand as Lusamine moved on, spotting Looker on the dock up ahead, hopping onto a boat.           

She broke into a run, adrenaline fueling her thought process. Anabel barely registered in her mind. She was so fixated on Looker, she’d never even considered the woman’s usage. However fast she went though, she couldn’t outrun the boat as it pulled away from the dock, and into open water. She was left standing uselessly at the end of the pier, watching as Looker made his escape. The man gave her one last, lingering look, before speeding away from her.             Lusamine looked around at the other boats, considering stealing one as well and going after him, before out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Anabel, eying her as she ran into the Grand Hano resort. It wasn’t until then that it dawned on Lusamine that Anabel would almost certainly know what Looker knew. They seemed to be partners, after all. Right?           

She swore under her breath before giving chase, pursuing her into the lobby. Anabel stumbled a little as she ran, and everytime she looked back, Lusamine seemed just a little closer. She pushed past a few hotel guests occupying the area, as she made her way to the resorts restaurant, while one rather devoted host tried to intercept her.     

“Excuse me! Ma’am! You need a reservation! You can’t…”

Anabel pushed him aside, hurrying through the dining room with Lusamine in hot pursuit. The host only glanced at her as she approached, and she was gone before he could finish saying.

“Welcome back Madame President.”           

Anabel recklessly pushed past waiters and guests, frequently glancing back to check and see if anything she’d done had dissuaded her pursuer in the slightest. It hadn’t. She upended a table as she ran, pushing it into Lusamine’s path and watching as she came to an almost skidding halt, before making her way around. That seemed to be working at least. Up ahead, were the doors to the kitchen, and Anabel sprinted towards them, pushing another waiter out of the way as she burst through the doors.           

Several cooks, dressed in white regarded her with utter shock and confusion. One of them set a large pot of water and uncooked pasta on the stove to boil, before Anabel hurried past him, towards the back exit of the kitchen.            

A hand gripped her shoulder, and Anabel didn’t need to look to know who it was. Lusamine pulled her towards her, and Anabel snatched up the closest thing in arms reach, a hot skillet. She swung it as she turned around, launching its contents across the kitchen, but hitting nothing. The moment she’d seen Anabel start to turn, she’d ducked, and tackled the woman’s midsection, knocking her against a steel counter. The hot skillet dropped from her hand, and Lusamine kicked it away, before Anabel pushed her firmly against the stove. The flames flared up, catching on Lusamine’s jacket and setting her alight. The intense heat made her heart race, as she ripped the jacket off of her, and tossed it at Anabel, who’d taken advantage of the distraction to seek out a proper means of defense. She’d snatched up a carving knife, and with a determined cry, charged at Lusamine, bringing the blade down towards her shoulder. Her intent was clearly just to wound her, not kill her. That might’ve been a mistake. Lusamine caught her by the wrist, and slammed it down against the hot stove, easing a screech of pain from the other woman, before she twisted her arm behind her back. She noticed the pot of pasta nearby, not yet coming to a boil, and seized Anabel by the back of the head, forcing her face down into the pot and beneath the surface of the water.           

The woman struggled relentlessly, her limbs flailing in a dedicated effort to pull free of the water which heated up around her. She struggled to breathe, but came up with nothing. Anabel’s talents didn’t lie in fighting, and in terms of sheer strength she was outmatched. She grasped for something to help her, reaching for another skillet that Lusamine quickly threw to the ground and out of her way, as she felt Anabel’s struggles starting to grow steadily weaker and weaker.           

At last, she pulled the woman out of the pot, listening to her cough and sputter as she drank down mouthfuls of fresh air, before slamming her forehead hard against the edge of the stove, and knocking her unconscious.            

Several of the staff and some of the guests from the hotel stared at the two in silent shock, as Lusamine picked up the unconscious Anabel, and draped her over her shoulder. Half cooked pasta hung from the woman’s wet hair, as Lusamine carried her out without so much as a word, listening closely for the sound of sirens as she took her phone from her pocket and called a taxi.           

 

The late night Unova skyline, as seen from the penthouse window was pretty… and Sévérine loved it. But without Lusamine, the penthouse seemed empty. The nurse sighed as she entered, exhausted from her shift. She longed for her lover, out of her disguise and welcoming her. But that seldom happened these days. If anything, Lusamine had seemed more distant than ever!           

Lovemaking seemed onesided. Her kisses seemed reserved and held back. She was questioning if she really was loved. The woman had seemed… reluctant, to be with her at first. As if intimacy might destroy some aspect of their relationship. Sévérine wasn’t so certain that, that wasn’t the case.       

Throwing on a pot of tea, the woman checked through the messages, hoping Lusamine had left her something. Something to tell her that she was alright, that going after Lillie wasn’t too dangerous. 

She thought about the little girl Lusamine hadn’t told her about. She supposed it was understandable if they had a poor relationship, but now Sévérine wanted nothing more than to meet her in person! If Lusamine couldn’t be the mother she needed, Sévérine would! She could teach her! They could be a family, right?           

Smiling at the thought, Sévérine fetched a cup from the top shelf and turned around, spotting a figure in the doorway. Her heart skipped a beat as they drew closer.

“Heh… you know, you’re gonna be the perfect lure!” They said and Sévérine grabbed for her Audino’s pokeball, releasing it.

“Leave.” She said, her voice stern despite her accent. “Get out of my apartment!”   

“Oh! You wanna have a pokemon battle?” The figure asked, “Okay! I think I’m alright with that!” They took a pokeball from their belt, and threw it.     

“Go Incineroar!”            

In one move, her Audino was cast aside, and the figure drew closer the Incineroar at their back.     

“Is that all? Come on! That’s nothing!”           

Sévérine retreated, backing herself into a corner, and then, she started to scream.

A sensation of coldness was what shocked Anabel awake, and she gasped, partially from the pain she felt and partially from the unexpected cold.

 “Oh, you’re up.” Lusamine said coolly, “Good… means I don’t need to wait.”

  “Wait… wait for… what?”

She tried to study her surroundings. She recognized that she was in a bathroom, laying down in the tub, and that coldness had come from the ice cubes Lusamine had dumped onto her. Her wrists were bound behind her back, while her legs were bound at both the wrists and knees. Her jacket and gloves had been removed, and without them, she felt exposed.

Lusamine reached towards the faucet, and turned on the cold water, it splashed against Anabel’s face, while she picked up the empty bucket beside her. Anabel wiggled out of the way of the cascading water, only feeling droplets splashing against her face.

“I’ll be back… one or two more trips to the ice machine should be enough…” She said, her tone devoid of any emotion.

“No…” Anabel said, “You don’t… you don’t need to do this…”

“I don’t?” She asked, “Then tell me where I can find Hau. Do that, I’ll turn the water off and take you out of that ice.”

“Hau?” Anabel asked, before gritting her teeth, “Aether Paradise! We saw him a few hours ago!”

“Funny. My source told me something different. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll talk to them on my way to the ice machine. If you’re telling the truth, I’ll keep my word. If you’re not… you’ll be spending the door immersed in an ice bath. Don’t worry. I’ll check up on you regularly. I know what this looks like, but I really don’t want to kill you.”

She turned off the lights, and closed the door. Anabel heard it lock. Locking from the outside? Lusamine must’ve taken the doorknob off and turned it around so it would do that.

For a few minutes, Anabel sat there in complete darkness, the hissing of the faucet and the splash of water by her head as her only company. She could already feel herself starting to shake as her body temperature dropped. The water soaked into her clothes, making them heavy and uncomfortable. Those few minutes felt closer to half an hour. But Lusamine finally did return, and wordlessly dumped another bucket of ice on her.

“You lied.” She said, her voice completely toneless. “We’ll see how you feel in an hour…” She studied the rising water level, noting that it was high enough, and turned off the faucet, before leaving and closing the door again, immersing Anabel in cold darkness. Outside the door, a catchy drum and clap beat that led into a slightly annoying pop song… and when that song ended, it started again, and again, and again…

_ We're on easy street _

_ And it feels so sweet _

_ Cause the world is but a treat _

_ When you're on easy street _

Anabel didn’t know how long she stayed there. Hours, maybe. She lost count of how many times the song looped, and with the cold and the darkness, time itself seemed to slow.

When Lusamine finally opened the door, she was almost happy to see her. The woman looked up at her with wide, almost frightened eyes. When the lights were turned on, it was blinding. She could see headphones hanging around Lusamine’s neck. No doubt to drown out that awful, awful music. She watched as she took a towel off the rack, and knelt down beside the tub.

“Where’s Hau?” She asked, her voice as toneless as before.

“I-If he’s not at Aether Paradise I don’t…”

“You would’ve taken me to him if I’d gone with you. Don’t tell me you don’t know where to find him.”

Anabel paused, realizing that denying things wasn’t going to work.

“I… I can’t…” She said, “You’d kill him…”

“And he wouldn’t kill me?” Lusamine asked, before sighing and taking the towel, placing it over Anabel’s face. She gripped her head firmly as she turned on the faucet again, again with cold water, and forced her head under it.

As the water soaked through the towel, it clung to her face. She couldn’t breathe! It was like she was drowning. For several agonizing seconds it went on before Lusamine stopped, removing the towel and Anabel thought she spotted a look of clear horror in her eyes, before she forced it down.

“Don’t make me do that again… where’s Hau.”

“He’s just a kid…”

“So is Lillie! Where’s Hau!” Her voice held a tinge of impatience.

“I won’t…”

Sighing, Lusamine pressed the towel over her face again, and the torture started again. When Anabel still refused to answer her question, she left her back in the darkness, with that awful tune to listen to as she gasped for breath.

Lusamine’s hands were shaking as she left the bathroom again. Her heart was racing in her chest. A thousand thoughts tore through her mind. Revulsion at what she was doing, and meek attempts to justify it.

_ What the hell am I doing? _

_It’s for Lillie!_

_What if I kill her?_

_Lillie’s in danger!_

_Lillie wouldn’t want this… she’d call you a monster…_

_You ARE a monster!_

Shaking her head, Lusamine put her headphones back in her ears and laid down on the bed, resetting her one hour timer, then hitting play on her phone to listen to something else. She could hear Mohn’s voice, just as she remembered it.

_ “Gladion! Sing Happy Birthday to your sister!” _

_ “Dad, she’s just a baby. She’s not gonna care!”  _ She couldn’t help but smile as she heard her son’s voice, and Lillie’s babytalk in the background.

_ “Come on.”  _ It was her own voice now.  _ “We sang happy birthday to you on your first birthday! Be a good sport, alright? If you do… I might save some of that cake for you.” _

__ There was a pause as Gladion mulled it over, and Mohn laughed.

_ “Come on, kid. You gotta think about it? Look, even Clefable’s gonna sing, aren’t you?” _

__ Her Clefable made a cheerful noise, before finally, the family she’d once had chimed in together in wishing Lillie a happy first birthday.

As the hour ticked by, she listened to old recording after old recording. Some of them were from videos that she couldn’t bring herself to watch anymore. Listening to them hurt already. But it was all she had.

The timer going off tore her away from her memories, and she got up slowly, blinking away some moisture in her eyes before going to check on Anabel again.

The woman hadn’t moved. She laid there in the cold, eyes wide and recoiled slightly from Lusamine when she saw her.

  “Ready to talk?” She asked her, “Hau. Where is he?”

  “I… I…” She stumbled over her words, watching as Lusamine picked up the towel again.

  “Please… h-he’s a kid… he doesn’t deserve to die…”

  “If you saw what he did to Mr. Hansen, you wouldn’t say that.” Lusamine replied, “But I don’t want him dead. I just want my daughter. I don’t give a damn what happens to Hau.”

Anabel met her eyes, studying her carefully, before finally shaking her head.

“No… no more… please… I’ll tell you… Hoenn. Mossdeep city. There’s an oil rig just north of there. He set up there.”

  “Is Lillie with him?” Lusamine asked.

  “I don’t know, I swear I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in almost a week… but if she’d be anywhere, she’d be there.”

Lusamine nodded, before reaching towards the faucet again.

  “Wait!” Anabel cried, but Lusamine ignored her, reaching past the faucet… and down for the plug. Without a word, she pulled it, and let the water start to drain. She rolled up her sleeves, before lifting Anabel out of the tub, and carrying her towards the bed.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” She warned her, before fetching a pair of scissors from nearby, and cutting her bindings. With her limbs free, Anabel clutched the blanket, and buried herself under it. She didn’t care if she was getting the bed wet. After spending two hours immersed in icy water, all she cared about was warmth.

“Lower your head. It’ll get the blood flowing better.” Lusamine said, “I could’ve made the bath colder… but I was afraid if I did that, it might kill you.”

She set a kettle on in the motel rooms small kitchen, making some tea to help her warm up.

“Your concern is appreciated…” Anabel said, her voice weak as she squeezed the blanket tightly around her, her eyes settling on Lusamine’s phone, and the frozen image on the screen. It was a still from a video, and she could recognize a younger looking Lusamine, a blonde man, and two young children.

“Hau said you were a danger to your children… you couldn’t be allowed near them.” She said.

“I was...” Lusamine confessed, “I hated them for what they did. Telling me I needed help, like I was broken or… wrong.” She looked over at Anabel. “All I wanted was my sweet beast. Then Hansen showed up, so I did what I had to do. I ran, and after a while, I got to thinking. Maybe I was broken. Maybe I was wrong. I spent a lot of time thinking about that, but I didn’t want to get close to the kids again. After Hansen and Hau found me, I buried myself as deep as I could and tried to just… reset everything, I suppose.”

“You can’t reset your life.” Anabel said, “Even if you did just wake up one day and remember nothing. Even if it’s all gone, that’s not a reset. That’s just torture. Did you really want to just live a lie for the rest of your life?”

    “Maybe.” Lusamine shrugged, pouring a cup of hot tea. “But after all you’ve heard, and what you’ve seen me do, do you really think I don’t deserve it? I’ve no illusions of reconciling with my children or fixing what I’ve done. But Hau isn’t himself anymore. If he… he hurts Lillie, then I don’t think I’ll be able to keep going.”

She offered Anabel the tea, noticing the way she was looking at the screen of her phone, and wordlessly took it off the table, pocketing it. If that bothered Anabel at all, she didn’t say so, choosing instead to greedily drink down the tea.

“Looker and I did have our doubts…” She said, as she lowered her cup, “About Hau… We were supposed to use live rounds. Specifically on Hansen. When Looker found out you were tracking him, he almost refused to tell me. I didn’t blame him. We’re officers of the law not… not assassins. We were told he was dangerous. To shoot on sight, it’d be safer. But what I saw? That wasn’t dangerous. That was a man barely holding on.”

“Hau’s to blame.” Lusamine said, picking up the kettle and bringing Anabel a refill. “He’s to blame for all of it.”

Anabel didn’t respond to that, just quietly staring at her tea.

“You do know that if you’re right, and Hau really does want you dead, going to Mossdeep is basically suicide, right? After Looker reports in, he’ll kill you on sight.”

Lusamine nodded.

“I’m working that out.” She said, studying the shape of Anabel’s face. “He wouldn’t kill me in front of you, though… you’re a cop.”

Anabel frowned.

“What are you getting at?”

“What if you brought me in?”

“You were waterboarding me about an hour ago. I still can’t feel my fingers. Do you trust me? How do you know I don’t want you dead now too?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong. I don’t trust you in the slightest.” Lusamine said, “Which is why  _ you _ won’t be bringing me in… but if I’m eyeballing it right, we’re probably about the same size. If no one looks too closely…”

Anabel’s eyes widened a little.

“You’re kidding…”

“Not in the slightest. It’s a way in without getting shot. Unless you have a better idea, this is the best I’ve got. Now drink your tea and stay warm… there’s some work I need to do.”

For two days, Anabel was confined to the motel room with Lusamine. After the initial torture, she’d been surprisingly kind as she perfected the disguises and booked the plane tickets. While Anabel still felt reluctant to trust her, she found herself compelled by this woman. She wasn’t sure if she was insane or just determined. Maybe there wasn’t any difference.

“Why care now?” She’d asked, as Lusamine busied herself shaping a wig after her own hair. “About your children. Why would they matter now, after all you’ve done to alienate them?”

“Lillie came to me in Unova.” Lusamine replied, glancing up from her work. “She tracked me down somehow. She wanted me to step in and do something about Hau I suppose. Talk him down, perhaps. I…” She paused, “I brushed her off, I said things I shouldn’t have, and as she was leaving, she said something. She said she should’ve left me to die in Ultra Space, with the Nihilego. I’d told her that… t-that birthing her was my greatest regret. So she told me that hers was ever bothering to try and help me.”

She sighed, abandoning her work on the wig for a moment.

“Then she left. When I finally went after her, Hau had already grabbed her. I don’t know how he even found her but he did.”

Anabel bit her lip, knowing exactly how Hau had found Lusamine. Another of their instructions had been to find Lillie, Sun and Gladion. Looker had been the one who’d found out where Lillie was. He was the one who’d assigned that cop as a guard. She couldn’t imagine why Hau would’ve taken her, but she had plenty of guesses.

During the nights, Lusamine let Anabel have the bed to herself. Mostly since it was easier to handcuff her to the headboard. She slept in a chair nearby, draped in a blanket and quiet. Sometimes though, Anabel could see her sitting there, wide awake and listening to those video’s again. She never watched them. Only listened, and if she looked closely, she thought she could see tears in the corners of her eyes.

Heading to the plane to Hoenn, Anabel almost admired the exact brand of madness Lusamine seemed to be inspired by. Her disguises were passable, at least. She’d modeled her own hair perfectly onto a wig, and with the right outfit and makeup, she easily passed for Lusamine. Lusamine herself had put as much effort into her own disguise. Anabel could see the obvious differences between them, but anyone else would probably need to take a good hard look to spot these differences. Anabel’s hands were cuffed, as Lusamine led her through the boarding gate, and onto the plane. She’d all too happily flashed Anabel’s badge whenever it needed to be flashed, and the strangers hadn’t seen anything wrong with her, even with the real Anabel at her side. They boarded the plane with no issue at all, and Lusamine let Anabel take the window seat, trapping her in when she sat down.

“After we land, you’re going to call Hau.” She said. “Tell him I’m with you, and arrange a means for him to come and collect us.”

“And if they shoot me on sight?” Anabel asked.

“He wouldn’t. He’ll think I’m you, and he wouldn’t kill me in front of you.”

Anabel just quietly huffed under her breath, before looking at the window. She shifted uncomfortably in her handcuffs, hating the way they dug into her wrists.

When the plane finally landed, Lusamine dragged Anabel off the plane, bringing them to an airport café, before releasing her from her handcuffs, and setting Anabel’s phone in front of her.

“Time to call.”

Anabel nodded, picking up her phone, and finding Hau’s number before calling. Her eyes locked with Lusamine’s as she got her answer.

“Mr. Hau… Yes, it’s Anabel, with the International Police. Has my Partner checked in with you yet?” She paused, and Lusamine could hear Hau’s voice on the other end, although she didn’t understand what he was saying.

“No doubt he will soon, then. We got separated during our visit to Alola. But I do have good news, about Madame Lusamine. I managed to apprehend her… yes, she’s here with me now… we’ve just landed in Mossdeep. Actually, I was hoping you could send us some transport.”

Transport? Lusamine frowned, but kept quiet.

“Much appreciated, Mr. Hau. Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

She hung up and set the phone back down, before offering her wrists so Lusamine could cuff them again.

“Where do we meet him?” Lusamine asked, as she closed the steel cuffs around Anabel’s wrists, and pocketed her phone again.

“Here. He’ll be sending a helicopter. He usually does. They call over the intercom. Just wait for it. It might take a while. If we’re going to sit here the whole time, would you mind getting me a coffee?”

Lusamine just rose up quietly and approached the mediocre coffee stand, glancing back to keep an eye on the detective she’d captured as she got them both a large coffee, and the usual mixes. It seemed a bit surreal, looking at a duplicate of herself, and knowing she herself looked different than what she usually did.

As she brought the coffee back, she let Anabel mix it, and watched her drink, before asking a question.

“You said you were suspicious of Hau. Why keep working for him?”

“We had our own reasons for looking for you.” Anabel admitted, “The things you did, we needed to bring you in. Your son tried to hush us up. After he left things though, Hau pulled us back in. It wasn’t supposed to be… well, this chaotic. He told us things. The hospital you stayed at after your fight with Mr. Hansen, he told us that the people who treated you had equipped you with… well, weaponry and helped you escape. He made a bunch of claims about this black market dealer. We arrested them, naturally and held them for questioning. It was supposed to be routine.”

“It wasn’t?” Lusamine asked, and Anabel shook her head.

“Anything but. There was a nurse, missing. Sévérine DuPont. Looker went after her, I imagine that’s how he ended up at your dinner party.”

“If he was there to arrest her, why didn’t he?”

“Because about a month prior, when we walked into our base of operations, we found everyone from the Southern Kalos hospital hanging from the walls of their cells, their bedsheets neatly tied around their throats. We were supposed to believe everyone just uniformly committed suicide. Hau said it was proof that they were guilty. Looker thought it looked a little too cut and dry. So he did some poking. All the nooses were tied the exact same way. Some of the victims had signs of struggle. He thought someone had gone into their cells and bumped them off one by one. Conveniently the power was down for the night too. The guard first claimed he didn’t see anything, but I thought that was just too convenient. I pushed him…” She trailed off, “I must’ve pushed too hard. He turned violent, one of the other local officers had to put him down.”

“So just like that, everyone you were questioning up and dies, and the most likely murderer gets killed later on… very convenient. What did Hau have to say about it?”

“Not a hell of a lot. He said it was weird, but nothing else. I thought that maybe he was playing dumb. Looker had a bad feeling in his gut, so do I. But we’ve got no evidence. No proof that anything he’s telling us has been true. The closest thing to any evidence we turned up was the black market dealer he told us you were involved with. The only thing they were able to tell us about you was how bad for the poaching business you were a few years back, and how easy stealing from you was. They’re not exactly a reliable witness either, considering they only contacted us via email.”

She sighed.

“You’re the last piece of the puzzle though. What you’ve said… it’s got me thinking. Assuming you’re not lying, then that’s pretty damning against Hau.”

“If you’re convinced, just take him in.” Lusamine said. “What’ve you got to lose?”

“Well, we’ll see what happens.” Anabel said, holding up her wrists. “I’m handcuffed in an airport café, and dressed like a terrorist.”

“Point taken…” Lusamine murmured, testing her coffee to see if it’d cooled at all.

“If we did take Hau in though, you’d be next. You know that, right? Two counts of assaulting an officer, one of impersonating that officer and one of kidnapping. That’s probably enough for you to spend the rest of your life in a cell, and I haven’t even touched about eleven or twelve counts of summoning an interdimensional being, at least three counts of manufacturing artificial life, more counts of destruction of property than I can keep track of, and one count of playing God.”

“Well, after all that, I suppose I do deserve to be the one in handcuffs.” Lusamine replied.

The intercom crackled with static, and a voice called them over it.

_ “Detective Anabel to terminal 12 please. Detective Anabel to terminal 12.” _

__ They both looked over at it, and Lusamine noticed that her hands had gotten closer to Anabel’s, her fingers almost lacing with hers.

  “Next time, you will be.” Anabel said, her tone calm and level, before standing up. “Hau’s waiting.”

The helicopter waited on the runway. It was small enough to seat more than them, but they were all alone as they boarded. The pilot didn’t even get out to greet them, and as they took off, Lusamine was wracked with feelings of nostalgia.

She remembered staying in Mossdeep, meeting with deep sea drilling companies almost daily to discuss more ecofriendly means of obtaining the oil they sought after. Mossdeep fell away, and Lusamine found herself staring ahead at the empty water. She could see a blip on the horizon that she knew was where Hau and Lillie were waiting.

  “ _ Mommy… if the monsters come back. Are they going to take you, like they took Daddy?” _

_ “No. no, no, no… never. I’ll fight them off. They won’t take you or Gladion either. Nothing will can take you away from me. Not ever. I’ll always come and find you, because I love you.” _

_ “Even if you were mad at me?” _

_   “My sweet Lillie… I love you too much to ever lose you.” _

__ She remembered touching her finger to her young daughters lips, and hearing her cheerful giggle, that in her mind faded away to a sterner voice.

_ “Children are not just things that belong to their parents! Pokemon are not just things that a trainer can do whatever they want to! I am alive! Cosmog is alive! We are not just things for you to collect! We are not made to just discard when you get bored of us! That is terrible!  _ **_You are terrible, Mother._ ** ”

She found herself shifting uncomfortably, recalling the sweet enveloping feel of Nihilego’s body and the… rush… she felt while inside. Every emotion beautifully amplified. The adrenaline of the battle, the fury of defeat and the utter loathing for the young girl in front of her. The need she felt, the lust she felt in anticipation of feeling that awful little spawn of hers squish beneath (Her Nihilego’s) fist. The satisfying crack as her fragile little bones snapped and the dying squeal of pain as the body she’d carried in her womb was destroyed, the life she’d created snuffed out by her own hand…

Her hands started to shake as she stared out over the passing water,

_ “I should’ve left you in Ultra Space… let your precious Ultra Beasts pick your bones clean… if your regret was giving birth to me, then mine was ever bothering to try and help you!” _

A hand rested over hers, and she looked over, seeing Anabel meeting her eyes, clear concern etched on her face.

“Are you alright? You’re crying…”

“A-am I?” Lusamine’s voice felt small and broken as she quickly composed herself. “Altitude… must be…”

She dried her eyes, and forced a smile watching as her own tears ran down Anabel’s leather gloves.

“We’re almost there.” Anabel said. “I’d ready my pokemon if I were you.”

Lusamine nodded, taking a few deep breaths as the helicopter moved in for a landing. She could see a familiar figure waiting by the landing pad, hands on his hips and carefree smile on his face.

Hau. But beside him, was a tall Incineroar, and a couple of armed guards. Lusamine’s hand dipped down to her belt, deciding which Pokemon to use. She settled on Bewear, and as the helicopter finally landed and the door opened, she forced Anabel out, before stepping out herself.

“She’s all yours.” She said, pushing the woman towards Hau.

“Really? That’s amazing!” Hau said cheerfully, “I didn’t think you guys were gonna pull through for me, you know? But at least, she can get the help she deserves!” He folded his arms. “Great work officer! Hey, Incineroar! Take care of our guest, will you, please?”

The massive pokemon regarded Lusamine with suspicion before swaggering over towards Anabel. It took her wrists, before effortlessly snapping the chain of her handcuffs.

  “You wouldn’t mind if I rested up here for a few hours first, would you?” Lusamine asked, as the guards led Anabel away.

  “It’d feel like such a waste to come all this way and not stay. I’m hoping Looker will join me too.”

“We’re still waiting on him.” Hau said, “But I’m glad you want to stay! I actually had something I really wanted to show you! Come and take a look!” He gestured for her to follow, leading her around the rig. She followed obediently, and as she rounded the corner with Hau, she froze.

On the edge of the oil rig, knelt two figures. Both were bound, and the ropes that tied their legs together connected to a heavy concrete block poised on the very edge of the rig. A single kick, would drag either or both to a watery grave. The first was clearly Sévérine, and the second… Lillie.

  “Hau… w-what’s the meaning of this…?”

  “I’m not stupid, Lusamine.” Hau said, looking over at her. “It’s gonna take more than a couple of wigs to fool me, you know? But you really did try and that’s really something! Honestly, I’m just glad you didn’t die in that iron mill! I was really looking forward to having a pokemon battle with you! You remember, right? I did say we should battle next time we met!”

Lusamine pulled the wig off of her head, tossing it aside, and taking Bewear’s pokeball. She glanced at that Incineroar, watching as it stepped forward.

“I remember. But what about them?”

“Them?” Hau looked over at them, before grinning. “They’re the stakes! A contest is no fun if there aren’t any stakes! So, here’s what I’m putting in the pot! If you win, I’ll let them go! Lillie and your girlfriend! But if you lose… you have to swap with one of them. So someone can go free, but you’re gonna take their place.”

“Hau, that’s insane! You’ll kill them!”

  “You would’ve killed Lillie!” Hau said, “And Gladion, and Sun and maybe even me and Mr. Guzma! You didn’t care, so why should I care now, yeah? Come on, come on, come on! Incineroar’s waiting! So send out a pokemon already! I’ve really been waiting for this!

Gritting her teeth, Lusamine glanced over at her daughter and her lover, before releasing Bewear.

“Hammer arm!” She ordered, as the massive pokemon charged towards Hau’s Incineroar.

“Cross chop!” Hau responded, his tone almost sing song. As Bewear swung its arm, the Incineroar ducked it, striking at Bewear’s belly. Her pokemon doubled over, stumbling back a few steps, before taking a knee.

“Damnit… don’t quit on me now… Bewear, come on! Try again!”

  “Cross chop~!” Before her Bewear could get going the Incineroar had already struck it a second time, carelessly knocking it aside.

Hastily, Lusamine sent out her next pokemon. Clefable.

“Moonblast! Take it down!” The blast struck Incineroar head on, but the massive pokemon shook it off like it was nothing, countering with a ruthless flare blitz. It shrugged off a second moonblast, before finishing her Clefable.

One by one Lusamine’s pokemon were defeated. Milotic was brought down with a darkest lariat, as was Mismagius. Liligant was burnt up with a final flare blitz. She could see signs of wear on Hau’s Incineroar from its reckless attacks, but by then, she was already beat…

“Oh wow… that’s disappointing…” Hau said, shaking his head slowly. “Here I was, all hyped up but… you didn’t really do anything, did you?”

Her teeth bared, Lusamine withdrew her defeated Liligant, and took a step back. Hau wagged his finger.

“You’re off your game, aren’t you? I didn’t even need to use a Z move! Sun told me you were a LOT tougher in Ultra Space… but maybe that’s just cuz you were cheating, right?”

  “Shut up…” She hissed through clenched teeth. Hau just grinned.

“You know the terms, right? Who goes free? Lillie, or the Nurse?”

“Both! Hau, you know this is complete insanity! You won! You beat me! So deal with me, damnit! Not them!”

“You don’t get it… I will deal with you, one way or the other. But I want you to know how it feels first! To lose people you care about!” His voice cracked as he spoke. “To have them taken away from you!”

“I already know how it feels… sweet Hau…” She said, “This can stop right here… neither of us have to lose anyone today!”

“You’re wrong. YOU’RE WRONG, OKAY?!” Hau’s voice broke completely, his carefree tone had shattered, devolving into a scream of rage.

“If you’re not gonna choose, I’ll MAKE you choose! Incineroar! Make her choose!”

The pokemon seemed to grin as it advanced on Lusamine, and she readied herself for a fight.

When the Incineroar came, it slammed into her, shoulder first, knocking her off her feet. No human boasted pure muscle like that, and as she started to stand, it stomped on her back. She swore she heard her shoulder pop, and felt a sharp pain there. As she screamed, Hau giggled.

A meaty claw seized her by the head, and hurled her to the ground at Hau’s feet.

“How did you even survive?” He asked, “You’re just… weak… pathetic! This is anticlimactic, isn’t it?” He watched as Lusamine tried to get up, babying her left arm and whimpering in pain as pressure was put on it. He crouched in front of her, meeting her eyes.

“Choose. Lillie or the Nurse.”

Lusamine could see more armed guards approaching, and among them, Anabel. She’d discarded her wig as well, and avoided so much as looking at Lusamine. How long had she been watching?

“Please… Hau… please don’t make me…”

“CHOOSE! DO IT! Or I’ll throw you all overboard and you can all drown together…”

“Please no… please…”

Hau looked over to Anabel.

“She’s having trouble deciding, so could you let them talk? Maybe it’ll help!”

Glancing down at Lusamine, Anabel pulled the tape off of Lillie’s mouth first.

“Mother!” She gasped, “M-Mother… help! Please! I-I don’t… I don’t want to…”

“Lusamine!” Sévérines voice joined in, seconds later, “Wait… wait, listen! Listen to me! Please! Please! I… it’s not… please!  _ C'est un mensonge! Mensonge!”  _ She pleaded. Lusamine could see the frantic tears streaming down her face. Lusamine didn’t even bother trying to translate what she said.

“Mother please! It’s me! I-it’s your Lillie!”

_   “Ne lui faites pas confiance! C'est un piège!”  _ Severine wept. “ _ S'il vous plait… S'il vous plait… S'il vous plaît ne me laissez pas mourir…” _

__ “Please…” Lusamine rasped one last time, as Anabel approached her, a length of rope in her hands. She pulled Lusamine’s arms forward, earning a cry of pain from her as she moved her dislocated arm, before binding her wrists together. Her eyes met Lusamine’s once more, before she turned to leave.

“Pick.” Hau said. “Lillie, or the nurse.”

He stood up, drawing closer to the block Lillie was tied to.

“Five… four… three…”

   “LILLIE!” Lusamine cried, “F-FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LET MY FUCKING DAUGHTER GO! PLEASE! PLEASE!”

Hau looked over at her, before smiling.

“There. That’s a choice!” He said, “Tie her to the nurse!”

One of the guards dragged Lusamine, screaming in agony towards Sévérine, before tying it around her already bound wrists, securing them together.

“There we go. All set.” Hau chimed, “Oh, but one thing, before you go…”

He kicked Lillie’s block over the edge, Lusamine’s heart jolted in her chest, as she watched it disappear… but Lillie remained where she was. The rope pulled away harmlessly, leaving her kneeling there. Two guards went to unbind her, and for the first time, Lillie raised her head, allowing Lusamine to get a good look at her.

It wasn’t Lillie.

“I could NEVER put one of my friends in danger!” Hau said, “Especially not Lillie… she’s not even here right now! You came all this way for nothing!” He looked over to the guards who’d set the Lillie decoy free, and Severine’s words echoed in Lusamine mind

_ C'est un mensonge! _

_It’s a lie._

She’d been trying to warn her.

  “Get the helicopter ready and set the demolition charges.” Hau said, “We’re leaving.”

“L-Lusamine…” Sévérine said, her voice small and weak… “I… I panicked… I… I’m sorry…”

   “It’s alright… w-we’re gonna be okay.” Lusamine lied, watching as Hau drew closer. “Y-you’re gonna be okay. I pro—”

Her words were cut off, as Hau kicked Sévérines block over the edge of the oil rig. She was jerked back with a scream, dragging Lusamine with her over the edge, and into the depths.

Beneath the surface of the water, the world was quiet and beautiful. Sévérine stared up at her, hair fanning out, eyes wide in knowing horror as Lusamine desperately fought through the pain, struggling to free herself. The ropes around her wrists gave far easier than they should have. She remembered the look in Anabel’s eyes as she’d tied them.

She’d left them loose.

The ropes fell away from her wrists, and she started to float, as Severine sank deeper into the Hoenn sea. Lusamine swam down in pursuit of her, struggling against her own buoyancy, and reaching for her hand. She tried to fight the ropes. To rip them, bite them, anything to break them.

But they didn’t give. She clasped Sévérines hands, weakness setting in as she ran out of breath, and meeting the eyes of a woman she now knew she loved. They both knew it was hopeless.

Sévérines fingers squeezed Lusamine’s, before against the pull of the depths, she leaned in. Her lips brushed against Lusamine’s for one brief moment. One final kiss, before she was pulled away, sinking down into darkness and leaving Lusamine floating helplessly, staring into the abyss as the silhouette disappeared into the depths, lost forever. Her hand uselessly extended in some vague hope of saving her. Lusamine’s vision was fading. The salt water burnt her wounds, and everything ached as she floated back to the surface.

She broke the waves, looking up into the bright sun, a pit of bitter emptiness in her stomach. The water rocked her body, throwing her wherever it pleased, and she spotted the oil rig out of the corner of her eye, a shouldering wreck, sinking down to join Sévérine in the depths, in the wake of the charges that had gone off mere moments before. It would become her tomb.

She could hear the drone of a helicopters blades, and looked over to the horizon, watching as Hau made his escape. She was too weak to swim after him. Too weak to do anything but float aimlessly, waiting for death.

The boat drew closer. She didn’t know how long she’d been floating there, but she’d found herself watching it for the past little while. It sped towards the rapidly sinking ruins of the oil rig, before stopping nearby. She spotted a man on board, scanning the water in search of something. He seemed to spot her quickly, and relocated the boat, bringing it closer to her.

It took her a few moments to realize who it was. None other than Looker himself. The boat stopped alongside her, and Looker rushed to the railing.

“At last… I have found you! You are alive! This is good! Where is the other one… Anabel said there would be two, yes?”

“I couldn’t save her…” Lusamine rasped, “If you’re here to kill me, please. Just do it.”

“Kill you?” Looker asked, “Oh my! No! You have it all wrong! I am…” He paused, “I am sorry about the other person… but I am not here to harm you. I am here to save you.”

He leaned down, extending a hand towards her, welcoming her into the boat, and after staring at it, Lusamine did the only thing she could do. 

She reached out, and took it.

 


End file.
